Leadership Theories: Which Are Most Studied? Which Are Most Googled?

Books on leadership are big business. We read for enjoyment and to be informed by CEOs and other business, military, and government leaders. However, the most informed writings on leadership may be from leadership scholars who conduct research to understand leadership and its processes. Leadership scholars publish their findings in academic journals, journals rarely read by leaders and managers in the workplace. So which leadership theories have been studied the most this century? 

Jessica Dinh, Robert Lord, and their colleagues recently published a most interesting study in The Leadership Quarterly. They examined the top ten academic journals that published leadership research for a ten year period, 2000-2012. The top three journals were The Leadership Quarterly (442 articles), Journal of Applied Psychology (125), and the Academy of Management Journal (45).

The researchers found 752 leadership research articles. They then analyzed each one, categorizing the study as to the leadership theory or theories studied. Their article includes a detailed, comprehensive table identifying 41 established leadership theories and 26 emerging theories, 67 overall. The leadership theories listed most frequently in the studies were:

• transformational (20%)
  
• traits (16%)
  
• leader-member exchange (15%)

Among the other theories were:

• Authentic leadership (4%)
  
• Behavioral approaches (OSU/LBDQ) (2%)
  
• Servant leadership (1%)
  
• Path-goal theory (1%)
  
• Contingency leadership theory (1%)

How well does the academic research reflect overall popular interest in particular theories? To gauge this, I entered terms in a Google trend search. Which are the most googled theories? The results are shown in the figure.

• Yellow –Transformational leadership 
  
• Blue – Servant Leadership
  
• Green – Leadership Traits
  
• Red – Authentic Leadership
  
• Purple – Leader-member Exchange

Transformational leadership ranks first in both. Trait approaches are in the top three in both. But servant leadership ranks second in google searches but has very few empirical studies.

My take-aways:

1.  The classic approaches to leadership in textbooks (trait, behavioral, contingency) generate very little research today. Most of the research on these theories is historical.

2.  One of the most popular leadership theories, servant leadership, generated very little research during this period. Studies of authentic leaders fared somewhat better. More research is needed on servant leadership and authentic leadership.

3.  Almost 60% of the leadership studies identified in Denh et al.’s analyses were in The Leadership Quarterly, now celebrating its 25th year of publication. The Leadership Quarterly appears to be required reading for anyone who wants to stay abreast of the latest research on leadership.  

Dinh, J. E., Lord, R. G., Gardner, W. L., Meuser, J. D., Liden, R. C., & Hu, J. (2014). Leadership theory and research in the new millennium: Current theoretical trends and changing perspectives. The Leadership Quarterly, 25, 36-62.

Image of trends for these leadership approaches made using Google Trends™ tool. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc., used with permission.  http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%22servant%20leadership%22%2C%20%22authentic%20leadership%22%2C%20%22transformational%20leadership%22%5C%2C%20%22leadership%20traits%22%2C%20%22leader-member%20exchange%22&date=1%2F2004%2097m&cmpt=q    

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