A Hierarchical Taxonomy of Leadership Behavior: Integrating a Half Century of Behavior Research

Abstract

A major problem in leadership research and theory has been lack of agreement about which behavior categories are relevant and meaningful. It is difficult to integrate findings from five decades of research unless the many diverse leadership behaviors can be integrated in a parsimonious and meaningful conceptual framework. An emerging solution is a hierarchical taxonomy with three metacategories (task, relations, and change behavior). Confirmatory factor analysis of a behavior description questionnaire found more support for this taxonomy than for alternative models.