Leaders and Leadership Roles in Relation to Effective Management of the Human Resources

The term leader is defined as a person initiating interaction with other members of a group, a person who moves the group towards group goal. The dictionary definition of a leader is ‘one who leads or goes first’. In other words one who first perceives the group’s needs far ahead of others and therefore plans and enlists the cooperation of others in its implementation. A person is a leader in any social situation in which his ideas and actions influence the thoughts and behaviours of others. The concept of a ‘leader’ therefore implies role-playing for some time. To be called a leader, one must be performing leading roles repeatedly under varying conditions (English Dictionary 1987 ; Gibb 1965)