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Organizations of all sizes are engaged in a competitive environment and hence need the right kind of leadership to survive. Organizations with effective leaders tend to innovate, respond to changes in markets and environments, creatively address challenges, and sustain high performance ([31] Vardiman et al. , 2006). While there are several definitions of leadership, in essence leadership is an act of motivating people to act by non-coercive means ([25] Popper and Lipshitz, 1993). [1] Alas et al. (2007) view leadership in terms of individual traits, leader behavior, interaction patterns, role relationships, follower perceptions, influence over followers, influence on task goals, and influence on organizational culture. [31] Vardiman et al. (2006) and [33] Yukl (2006) describe leadership as a process of influence toward the accomplishment of objectives. This view of leadership generally focuses on the dyadic relationships between a leader and follower, but not on what conditions need to be in place for effective leaders to emerge or to be developed ([31] Vardiman et al. , 2006).
It is important that all employees be equipped with leadership skills ([22] McCauley and Douglas, 2004) because leadership roles and processes are critical in setting direction, creating alignment, and nurturing commitment in groups of people ([20] Johnson, 2000). According to [24] Morrison et al. (2003), the essence of leadership traditionally has been the ability to first understand the theories and concepts of leadership and then to apply them in real life scenarios.
The absence of effective leadership has had a significant impact on the ability of organizations to implement and sustain strategic change initiatives. [26] Reinertsen et al. (2005) suggest that leadership skills should include such elements as envisioning the future, establishing goals, communicating, rallying support for the vision, planning for its implementation and putting the plans in place. [16] Degeling and Carr (2004) add that leader development is built on a foundation of cognitive, socio-emotional, and behavioral skills. These skills, supported by leader attributes such as self-awareness, openness, trust, creativity, and practical, social and general intelligence, provide the basis for leadership. Thus, it is important that organizations pay special attention to development of future leaders in order to sustain long-term effective leadership practices and high organizational performance. This paper presents some of the leadership development initiatives discussed...