Leading the response to changes in nursing

Leadership has been of interest to society for thousands of years, and has been discussed in Greek and Latin texts, the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, and the writings of ancient Chinese philosophers. The scientific study of leadership began in the early 20th century (Gopal and Moura, 2001), and a review of the literature suggests that there are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are theorists who have attempted to define the concept (Bass and Avolio, 1994). As a consequence, individuals and organizations have varied and dissimilar views and understandings of this term