ABSTRACT
Studying leadership through the arts and the humanities also helps to meet two other needs of the contemporary student of leadership. First, it provides for the development of the type of multidimensional thinking that is necessary for understanding and problem solving in a complex world. Second, it helps the student of leadership to find meaning and purpose for their own lives as they learn to lead themselves and others. This chapter offers a working definition of leadership based on five components: leaders, followers, goal, environmental context, and cultural context. Leadership is the process by which leaders and followers develop a relationship and work together toward a goal within an environmental context shaped by cultural values and norms. In studying leadership as a process, the people must understand the organizational and historic forces that are shaping decision making.
