THE SOCIAL SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF LEADERSHIP - QUO-VADIS

In this article, we review the history of the social scientific study of leadership and the prevailing theories of leadership that enjoy emp irical support. We demonstrate that the development of knowledge conce rning leadership phenomena has been truly cumulative and that much is currently known about leadership. We identify the contributions of the trait, behavioral, contingency and neocharismatic paradigms and the r esults of empirical research on prevailing theories. Issues that warra nt research in each of the paradigms and theories are described, Ten a dditional topics for further investigation are discussed and specific recommendations are made with regard to future research on each of the se topics.