Abstract
There are many different ways to scientific understanding. For me, it is a precondition of comprehension to grasp the investigated objects’ functions in their context. It is my impression that, despite some remarkable developments, leadership theory and research remain incoherent and miss some important problems; therefore, their practical usefulness must also be limited. To improve this unsatisfying state, I propose that we enlarge our scope and look at leadership phenomena from a systemic perspective. If this can be achieved as I hope, the more partial theories and findings will fall into their place, and we may even integrate them with additional hitherto neglected viewpoints to form a more general theory. The perspective I propose is the concept of group action: I conceive of groups (or other social systems, like organizations or even masses) as acting systems which actively strive, by means of directed behavior, toward internal and external goals. I further assume that the structural properties of groups evolve at least partly in the service of group action functions. This is particularly the case with leadership, which includes some most important functions of group action, namely, steering, energetizing, and control, and often contributes essentially to the groups identity and coherence as a precondition of enduring adapted activity.
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von Cranach, M. (1986). Leadership as a Function of Group Action. In: Graumann, C.F., Moscovici, S. (eds) Changing Conceptions of Leadership. Springer Series in Social Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4876-7_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4876-7_8
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