Multiple Pathways To Studying Outstanding Leadership

In studying outstanding leadership, we gain insights into important questions – such as how young men and women develop into outstanding leaders, the tactics outstanding leaders use to spark social movements, and the conditions in which these influential individuals are most likely to emerge. However, our answers to these important questions are only as good as the methods we use to examine them. In this chapter, we review the research methods that have been used to study outstanding leaders with a focus on Charismatic, Ideological, and Pragmatic (CIP) leadership theory. Scholars who study CIP theory have primarily relied on historiometric and experimental approaches. We summarize both approaches and review their key advantages, limitations, and challenges. In addition, we discuss ways to improve upon these approaches, along with five alternative methods that represent multiple pathways for advancing our understanding of outstanding leadership.