ABSTRACT
Supervisory leadership is usually measured in terms of the effect on the productivity of the group being supervised. Obviously, this is the measure of interest to management though it does not necessarily capture the full extent to which a supervisor exercises leadership. Both Pericles in ancient Greece and John Stuart Mill in the nineteenth century argued that states should not only be evaluated in terms of their efficiency but also in terms of the types of citizens they produce and the opportunities they give their citizens for individual development. We find the same view echoed among some social scientists. Thus to Argyris the ideal leadership is that which fosters individual development in the sense of allowing the worker to self-actualize. (There is a sense of this also in McGregor's theory.) But this has been a minority position probably because the effects on profits of making self-actualized workers a major objective are uncertain !
