FRHD 3190 Lecture 6: Week 6 notes

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Family Relations and Human Development
• Course: FRHD 3190
• Professor: Kimberley Squire

Document Summary

Peter northouse, an expert on organizational leadership acknowledges that there are many definitions of this term. For the purposes of gaining shared understanding, for this course, leadership is defined using his definition. Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. Let"s pull this definition apart to gain greater insights. In particular we will look at the words process, influence, groups, and goals. Use of the word process means that leadership is a transaction between two or more people over a period of time. Leadership is not a set of personal characteristics or personality traits that is innate or held only by a select few. In fact, one could infer from this statement that we are all leaders and followers because influence is usually bi-directional and non-linear. Simply put, without followers, leadership is an oxymoron.