Which Leadership Principles Currently Have The Most Appeal: Leadership in the Light of Contemporary Popular Leadership Literature

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to identify principles and critical elements of leadership reflected in contemporary popular leadership literature.

Study design/methodology/approach: In a quantitative-qualitative study, the main topics of leadership are extracted from business bestseller lists to infer the issues in leadership that have the most significant popular resonance.

Findings: Current popular business literature focuses on the leader as a person, respectively, on the personality of the leader, and in particular on transformational leadership, including elements of transactional leadership.

Originality/value: Examining contemporary popular leadership literature and interrogating it for underlying leadership principles and models breaks new ground in scholarly research.