A temporal approach to studying organizational leadership

In this chapter we argue for a temporal approach to studying organizational leadership. We provide a brief review of the major leadership paradigms and assess their dynamic properties, or lack thereof. We argue that the predominant research approach is unsuitable for studying leadership as a dynamic process, which in large part can be explained by the methodological limitations of the past. The current state of the field, characterized by a proliferation of various seemingly unrelated paradigms offering theoretical insights of (often) low practical utility, necessitates a different approach. We propose a temporal approach to studying leadership, highlight underutilized research methods, offer suggestions for their application in future research, and recommend the dynamic systems approach, with emergence as a central concept: as a meta-theory to advance an integrative and dynamic leadership theory that is of both theoretical and practical relevance.