The epistemology of leadership: understanding the philosophical influences on the soldier statesmans leadership approach

Abstract

Although leadership has been extensively researched in relation to the emergence and effectiveness of leaders, there is a deficiency in our understanding of how a persons leadership approach develops. Research has demonstrated that genetics and environment play a limited role in predicting leadership effectiveness or emergence with only some environmental factors correlating to the type of leadership approach that emerges. This dissertation addresses this shortcoming by investigating the role that societal, political, ethical and spiritual environmental factors play in the development of a person’s leadership approach. These environmental factors will be shown to consist of the influences from political, social, moral and religious philosophy. It will be demonstrated that the influence from these philosophical areas has an impact on the formation of a person’s understanding of the social relationship and that this in turn impacts their approach to leadership. An exploration of the relationship between philosophy and contemporary leadership theory demonstrates the relevance of philosophical influences on the resultant leadership approach.

This research uses the prosopographical method to analyse the backgrounds of a select group of leaders known as soldier statesmen through an investigation of the biographical material of their early lives. For this analysis, two soldier statesmen from each of the 18th and 20th centuries have been selected as suitable subjects: George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte from the former, and Dwight D Eisenhower and Charles de Gaulle from the latter. The extent to which the philosophical influence act upon these soldier statesmen is analysed to demonstrate the role that they play in the formation of their leadership approach.

The dissertation concludes by evaluating the role that the proposed environmental factors play in relation to existing environmental factors in determining a person’s leadership approach. The research indicates that the Great Man theory of leadership is inadequate for explaining great leadership and that the socio-historical context plays an important role in the emergence and success of great leaders.