Brighten up your future - Study for an ICM qualification
Course toolbox
Related courses
Human Resource Development Tools and Techniques
Training and Development
Human Resource Development I (Human Resource Management Practices and Policies)
Theory and Practice of Human Resource Management
Human Resources Management (Theory and Practice of Human Resource Management)
Human Resource Management Practices and Policies

Visit the ICM Amazon Book Store

Leadership Studies

Study Leadership Studies with ICMMain topics of study:

The Nature of Leadership:

  • Definitions of Leadership
  • Leadership Effectiveness
  • Major Research Approaches
  • Conceptualising Leadership
  • Comparing Leadership Theories

Nature of Managerial Work:

  • Activity Patterns of Managerial Work
  • Content of Managerial Work
  • Theory of Demands, Constraints, Choices
  • Research on Situational Determinants
  • The Changing Nature of Managerial Work
  • Managerial Discretion
  • Descriptive Research
  • Application for Managers

Perspectives on Effective Leadership Behaviour:

  • Ohio State Leadership Studies
  • Michigan Leadership Studies
  • Limitations of Survey Research
  • Experiments on Task & Relations Behaviour
  • Research using Critical Incidents
  • High-High Leader
  • Leadership Behaviour Taxonomies
  • Specific Task Behaviours
  • Specific Relations Behaviours
  • Evaluating the Behaviour Approach

Participative Leadership, Delegation & Empowerment:

  • Nature of Participative Leadership
  • Consequences of Participation
  • Research on Effects of Participative Leadership
  • Normative Decision Model
  • Guidelines for Participative Research
  • Delegation
  • Guidelines for Delegating
  • Empowerment

Dyadic Role-Making Theories:

  • Leader-Member Exchange Theory
  • Leader Attributions about Subordinates
  • Follower Attributions & Implicit Theories
  • Follower Contributions to Effective Leadership
  • Self-Management
  • Integrating Leader & Follower Roles

Power & Influence:

  • Conceptions of Power & Authority
  • Power Types & Sources
  • Acquiring & Losing Power
  • Consequences of Position & Personal Power
  • Types of Influence Behaviour
  • Power & Influence Behaviour
  • Research on Influence Tactics

Managerial Traits & Skills:

  • Nature of Traits & Skills
  • Early Research on Leader Traits & Skills
  • Major Research Programmes of Research on Leader Traits
  • Managerial Traits & Effectiveness
  • Managerial Skills & Effectiveness
  • Other Relevant Competencies
  • Situational Relevance of Skills
  • Evaluation of Trait Research
  • Application Guidelines

Contingency Theories of Effective Leadership:

  • LPC Contingency Model
  • Path-Goal Theory of Leadership
  • Leadership Substitutes Theory
  • The Multiple-Linkage Model
  • Cognitive Resources Theory
  • Evaluation of Contingency Theories
  • Application Guidelines

Charismatic & Transformational Leadership:

  • Early Theories
  • Attribution Theory of Charismatic Leadership
  • Self-concept Theory of Charismatic Leadership
  • Other Conceptions of Charisma; Consequences of Charismatic Leadership
  • Transformational Leadership
  • Research on Theories; Transformational Versus Charismatic Leadership
  • Evaluation of Theories
  • Guidelines for Transformational Leadership

Leading Change in Organisations:

  • Change Processes
  • Different Types of Organisational Change
  • Influencing Organisational Culture
  • Developing a Vision
  • Implementing Change
  • Increasing Innovation & Learning

Leadership in Teams & Decision Groups:

  • Nature of Teams
  • Functional Teams
  • Cross-Functional Teams
  • Self-Managed Work Teams
  • Self-Defining Teams
  • Virtual Teams
  • Procedures for Facilitating Team Learning
  • Guidelines for Team Building
  • Decision Making in Groups
  • Leadership Functions in Meetings
  • Guidelines for Leading Meetings

Strategic Leadership:

  • Constraints on Executive Discretion
  • Attributions about Chief Executives
  • Research on Effects of Leadership Succession
  • Evolutionary Change & Strategic Leadership
  • Political Power & Strategic Leadership
  • Executive Tenure & Strategic Leadership
  • Executive Teams
  • Competing Values in Strategic Leadership
  • Monitoring the Environment
  • Formulating Strategy

Developing Leadership Skills:

  • Leadership Training Programmes
  • Designing Effective Training
  • Techniques for Leadership Training
  • Learning from Experience
  • Developmental Activities
  • Self-Help Activities
  • Facilitating Conditions for Leadership Development
  • Systems Perspective on Leadership Development

Ethical Leadership & Diversity:

  • Ethical Leadership
  • Gender & Leadership
  • Leadership in Different Cultures
  • Managing Diversity

Reading List

Core Text:
Leadership in Organisations - Gary Yukl (Prentice Hall)

Supplementary Reading:
Not Bosses But Leaders - John Adair (Talbot Adair)
On Becoming a Leader - Warren Bennis (Century)
The Leadership Factor - J Kotter (Free Press)
Leadership - J M Burns (Harper & Row)
Leading Minds - H Gardner (Harper Collins)
Leading Change - J Kotter (Harvard Business School Press)
Making it Happen, Reflections on Leadership - John Harvey-Jones (Fontana)
Super leadership - C Manz & H Sims (Prentice Hall)

Leadership Theories

Practical Leadership
Developing Leaders - John Adair(Talbot Adair)
Management Teams, Why They Succeed or Fail - R Meredith Belbin (Heinemann)
The Wisdom of Teams - Jon Katzenbach & Douglas Smith (Harvard Business School)
Understanding Motivation - John Adair (Talbot Adair)
Games People Play - Eric Berne (Penguin)

Leadership & Change
Intelligent Leadership: Creating a Passion for Change - Alan Hooper & J Potter (Random House)
The Coming Shape of Organisations - R Meredith Belbin (Butterworth Heinemann)
Rethinking Organisation: New Directions in Organisation Theory & Analysis - M Reed & M Hughes (Sage)
Managing Today & Tomorrow - R Stewart (Macmillan)
The Future of Leadership - R P White, P Hodgson & C Crainer (Pitman)
Beyond Certainty - Charles Handy (Arrow Business Books)
The Fifth Discipline - P Senge (Doubleday/Currency)
Competing for the Future - G Hamel & CK Prahalad (Harvard Business School Press)

Back to top ^
© 2012 The Institute of Commercial Management (ICM), ICM House, Castleman Way, Ringwood, Hampshire, BH24 3BA, England