Value-Based Organisational Leadership: A Literature Review

This review of literature explores the literature on the concept of organisational leadership which is dedicated to the leader’s commitment to ensuring the common good. A hundred and eighty four articles were identified that focused on six main types of leadership, namely, transformational leadership, ethical leadership, spiritual leadership, responsible leadership, servant leadership and authentic leadership. These approaches to leadership focus on difference aspects of organisational leadership, on its ethicality, morality, spirituality and sustainability. Effort has been also made to identify how a leader uses these values to influence his/her followers and the current challenges faced by each type of leader discussed. This paper further explores the contemporary leadership issues under each approach. Overall, it was found that over the years, organisational leadership studies that focused on the common good were complex and emerging and that this subject has attracted the attention of many leadership researchers. However, there are still areas coming under these diverse leadership approaches which should be continuously researched. Therefore, the paper concludes with possible avenues for future research in this field.