Abstract
Despite research that has been focused on leadership for over 10 years ago, the concept of leadership is still indefinable. This paper attempts to develop the leadership concept by investigating the possibility of the coming up with fresh measures of leadership which concentrating on the characteristics of good and bad leaders. A total of 312 managers were recruited in the study. A factor analysis was conducted to reduce 13 traits of good leadership to two factors including the good and the visionary, and 13 bad traits to two factors including the evil and the inept. Secondly, there was evaluation of the way male and female followers view leadership styles adopted by the best and worst bosses. It was discovered the perception of women on their excellent bosses differed from the males` perceptions. The variations were based on several dimensions. Nevertheless, there is little difference regarding the males and females` perceptions of bad bosses.
Introduction
Researches on leadership have been found to be both interesting as well as frustrating. During times of excellence in leadership, leadership propels the imagination of scholars, practitioners and the general public since it may imply changed lives for better outcomes. On the other hand, failures in leadership may have harmful effects on many people, at time affecting life and even death. Nonetheless, scholars have bumbled in their quest to comprehend fully the leadership phenomenon. According to Burns (1978), leadership falls among the phenomenon that is most observed with little understanding of it on earth. Since that time, a vast number of researchers have complained about the state of leadership research affairs. Leadership is still an amorphous, ambiguous, and frequently misunderstood phenomenon (Wren, 1995). Higgs (2003) and Goffee and Jones (2000) reveal that research in this field of study has