Leadership Behavior Appraisal: A New, Broader Model of Understanding Leadership

Abstract

Many current models of leadership appraisal assume that causation for all events within the group interaction emerges from the leader, and represents a permanent feature of the leader-group interface. Trait theories, behavioral theories, contingency theories, and exchange/transaction theories all base the appraisal of group effectiveness and leadership appraisal primarily in terms of the leader. Even when the model incorporates the followers, they are constructed as a single entity that affects leadership in terms of how the leader will act, not as affective agents in their own right. In this paper, an alternative model of leadership ascription and appraisal is produced using the language of social dramaturgy. A new model of the leadership appraisal process is developed in which a synthesis of aspects from existing models of leadership is constructed within a dramaturgical framework to account for initial or temporary appraisals of leadership, and with continued observer interest, a more permanent, elaborate leadership appraisal emerges related specifically to the leader's personality and the unique history of the group. This new model allows for a more complete understanding of leadership appraisal by addressing group interaction factors previously not addressed in leadership models.