ABSTRACT
Although interpersonal relationships have always held importance within the organizational literature (Blau, 1964; Follett, 1941), a focus on relational perspectives is recently experiencing renewed interest in organizational behavior and leadership research (Brass & Krackhardt, 1999; Day, 2000; Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998; Uhl-Bien, Graen, & Scandura, 2000). According to Hunt and Dodge (2001), relational perspectives are at the forefront of emerging leadership thrusts. A relational focus is one that “moves beyond unidirectional or even reciprocal leader-follower relationships to one that recognizes leadership wherever it occurs, is not restricted to a single or even small set of formal or informal leaders, and in its strongest form, functions as a dynamic system embedding leadership, environmental, and organizational aspects” (Hunt & Dodge, 2001, p. 448). Such perspectives allow for broader and more dynamic views of leadership than traditional approaches, which focus primarily on the formal leader and supervisory behavior (Yukl, 1998).
