ABSTRACT
If one compares the book Changing Conceptions of Leadership edited by Graumann and Moscovici in 1986 with the Bass and Stogdill’s Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research and Managerial applications whose 3rd edition is dated 1990, one could say that, notwithstanding the fact that they both deal with the topic of leadership, they have very little in common, being almost incommensurable. The former is edited by European scholars and the great majority of the chapters are also European. The only exception is Fred Fiedler, a well-known American expert on leadership. The Bass and Stogdill’s Handbook is a comprehensive compilation of the most significant scientific studies, produced almost exclusively by empirically oriented American authors in the last seventy years. The differences between the two books reflect, to some extent, different social-cultural backgrounds and traditions. European authors are more concerned with the political aspects of leadership and its links with power and societal change. The approach is descriptive, theoretical, social-historical and idiographic. In contrast, the American approach is normative, empirical, practical and monothetic. Fiedler’s chapter on Graumann and Moscovici’s book thus appears as somewhat awkward and displaced. As a matter of fact, Fiedler anchors his representation of leadership to different ‘thêmata’.
