1

2
CHAPTER
OBJECTIVES
 Identify the origins of political leadership
 Understand the political theories of
leadership
 Understand the management theories of
leadership
 Identify the differences between political and
management leadership
3
LEADER
People who commonly has an ability to influence a group /
people to achieve certain goals.

Usually a person who is able to have skills to control and to

get certain things to be done.

Able to make a group of people work together and able to

unite people.

Able to guide people and direct people in proper value,

opinion, believe and behavior.
4
Usually he/she is a trend setter.

Usually has follower and able to control / direct them.

Has power to control.

Able to make policy and decisions in policy making.

Able to influence the policy and decision making.

5 Leaders are part of the society as :

Society decide whether he/she is a good leader/otherwise.

Society generates a leader.

Strong support comes from the society.

Society can make leader to become powerless and at the same time
powerful and popular.

Leader can exist in: Family, Society, Organization, Country etc.

1.3 DEFINITION OF
6

LEADERSHIP

Leadership :
 is an ability of a person to lead, a style of his own
to influence a group of people or society to follow
and support him.

 the ability to influence through formal and

informal way to lead the people in order to get
things done.
  “Leadership is an activity-an influence process in which an
7 individual gains that trust and commitment of other and
without reliance on formal position or authority moves the
group to the accomplishment of one or more tasks”(Walter F.
Ulmer, 2000)

 “Leadership involves in influencing tasks objectives and

strategies, influencing commitment and compliance in tasks
behavior to achieve these objectives, influencing group
maintenance and identification and influencing the culture of
an organization” (Gary Yuke, 2002).

 Richard L. Hughes, Robert C. Ginnet and Gordon J. Curphy

define leadership as “the process of influencing an organized
group toward accomplishing its goals”.
1.4 ORIGINS OF POLITICAL LEADERSHIP
8
THEORIES
According to Socrates - Political leaders:
Make laws and possess an absolute power.
Guardian to the society.
The best will become a king.

According to Plato – Political leaders:

Must be able to have a rational thinking.
Decisions are made sometimes not based on knowledge and facts.

According to Aristotle - Political leaders:

Is a person (leader) that holds all the power. -- Monarchy
Many person/people/leaders hold all the power --Polity (Democracy)
 1.4.1 DEFINITION OF POLITICAL
LEADERSHIP
9

 Political - activity pertaining to affairs of the state, to government and

institution.

 Politics can be defined as the art or science of government or

governing, especially the governing of a political entity, such as
nation, and the administration and control of its internal and external
affairs. 

 Political leadership is usually possessed by a person in the position or

office of authority such as Prime Minister or President. The activity
of influencing people will mainly focus on giving benefits to the
people in a state.

 The style of using his ability to influence people by contributing

efforts in order to develop the country.
10 1.4.2 Types/Theories of Political
Leadership

1) Divine Leadership
 A believe that the God appoints the leader.
 Leader has a certain divine rights
 Leader is higher and has many rights to do
anything (above the law).
 Leader makes the law (therefore he is above the
law and can break the law).
 It is a belief that is related to the religious belief of society.
11 This type of leadership belief that the state was created by God
and God appoints leader to lead the society.
The society must obey the final say of the leader as leader was
sent / appointed by God.
The entire decision making made by the leader who leads the
country and the society are unquestionable and unassailable.
An example of lineage or descent would be hereditary kings
who ascended the throne because of blood links to a founding
ancestor.
In traditional Hindu society, kingship by descent was the right
of the kshatriya (person of noble caste) who was said to be the
only one according to the varna system (class system) to
possess the spiritual strength to claim the right of power and
leadership – such as Asoka perhaps the greatest Hindu king in
history who alluded to himself as the “Devanampriya”, the
supreme ruler in “Priyadarshin,” (Shome, 2002).
 2. Machiavellianism / Might Makes Right Leadership
12 .
 Power is a goal of politic
 Leader can use whatever method to gain power either pain,
fear, death to a few people.
 People will obey the leader because they are fear and this will
be easy for leader to rule.
 End justifies the means.
 A belief of “Might is Right”.
 It is a leadership that believes the strongest will defeat the
weakest and then becomes leader or leads the state or the
society.
 Whoever in fact has the power to rule can also legitimately
claim to have the authority to rule.
 The leadership must strive to get a superb power by using
whatever method could be in order to become powerful even
though through pain, fear and death to a few of people.
13 3. Social Contract Leadership
 Jean Jacques Rousseau said that, “…man created a
contract among themselves to improve the society and
enjoy human freedom”.
 Thomas Hobbes proposed, “…that citizen should enter
into social contract with a powerful ruler. The ruler
would provide security in return for people acceptance
of his rights to rule”.
 Social contract leadership is based on a social contract
theory that indicates “…a state and its citizens have an
unwritten agreement between them, a social contract
into which they voluntarily enter”.
 The social contract theory also can be defined as the
idea that the state was established through some of
agreement between the citizens of the state.
 Chronology Of The Social Contract Leadership
14 Man existed originally in the state of nature before the
social contract was established. The state of nature may
be pre-social (before society existed). In the state of
nature, laws established were the Law of Nature / Natural
law and every individual has some form of natural rights.
Mankind then decided to establish a Social Contract and
create a Civil Society, a society that is based on civil
laws, which are man made and establish civil rights. All
the people in the society established an agreement to
surrender certain rights that they possess in exchange for
rights / privileges the agreement led to the separations of
the subjects (all the people in the civil society) and the
sovereign (the sources of law).
Therefore, a sovereign was established to ensure that
laws are made, adjudicated and executed – the sovereign
may take the form of some kind of government or means
or the whole civil society itself.
15 1.5 MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP

Can be best described as a person who has the ability to

influence the work place or the organization such as CEO,
manager, head of department, team leader etc.

Management leadership can also be defined as a person who

should have to implement and to set the organization through
its functions which are planning, organizing, directing and
controlling.

Responsible to manage all the organization resources in which

to gain their goals and target to get the best benefits to fulfill
the stakeholders.
 1.5.1 TYPES OF MANAGEMENT
LEADERSHIP
16

a) Transformational Leadership

 Leadership that generates awareness and acceptance of a group’s

purpose and mission and gets employees to see beyond their own needs
and self-interest for the good of the group.”(Williams, 2005)
 Characteristics: Charisma
Inspiration
Intellectual Stimulation
Individualized Consideration
 Effects – change followers behavior, mind, ideas, opinions, ability and
attitude.
 A transformational leader is a leader who inspires followers to transcend
their own self-interest for the good organization and is capable of having
a profound and extra ordinary effects on followers. (Robbins, 2001)
17 b) Transactional Leadership

 Leadership that guides or motivate followers in the direction of

established goals by clarifying role and tasks requirements. This
approach emphasizes the importance of the relationship between
the leader and the follower, focusing on the mutual benefits
derived from a form of “contract” through which the leader
delivers such things as rewards or recognition in return for the
commitment or loyalty of the follower.” (Saddler, 2001)
 Characteristics: Contingent Reward
Laisses-faire
Management by exception (active and passive)
 Effects –followers perform / present tasks with a loose bond.
 “ Leadership that guide or motivate followers towards
established goals by clarifying roles and task
requirements.”(Robbins,2001)
 “If you do this for me, I will do that for you.” (Waldman, 2001)
 1.6 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
18 MANAGEMENT AND POLITICAL
LEADERSHIP
Elements Political leadership Management leadership

Scope of power Power in a state Power in an organization

Legitimacy of power Could be legitimate or Must be legitimate

illegitimate

Popularity Must have supporters May not have supporters

Efficiency and Measured on political Measured on profit

accountability stability making

Trend setter For politics in a state For administration in

organization
19
References

 Anthony S.K Shome (2002), Malay Political Leadership.

Routledge Curzon: London.
 Gordon P. Means (1991), Malaysian Politics: The Second
Generation. Singapore: Oxford University Press.
 Syed Sirajul Islam (2005), Political Science: A Primer. Singapore:
Thomson Learning.
 Abdullah Abdul Rahman. (2015). Transformational Leadership: 8
Steps to Effective Transformational Leadership in Malaysia