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viewed that the images portrayed in Hollywood, folklore, and Old West influenced the popular view of leadership. Gemmill and Oakley (1992) viewed leadership as a myth, the major function of which is to preserve the existing social systems and structures by blaming problems on the ineffective leadership abilities rather than on the systems themselves. Villoria and Iglesias (2011) emphasized the importance of leadership in explaining changes and continuity. In the absence of “leadership, public organizations will never mobilize themselves to accomplish their mandated purposes” (Behn 1998, p. 209). Despite the advocacy of privatization and outsourcing, the reform movements of the 1980s and the 1990s centered on leadership. The New Public Management and Reinventing Government approaches focused on the privatization of the public sector with a central focus on leadership. At present, there is much emphasis on reforming public administration. The central focus of reforms is on leadership. In the United States, the reinvention movement centered on leadership efforts (Hennessey 1998). Influenced by the reform movement in the United States, every organization felt compelled to respond with initiatives to promote leadership (Hartley and Allison 2000). Because of the “continued focus on market mechanisms and public–private partnerships as key levers for reform, the public sector was encouraged to look to the business world for models of good practice in a drive to inculcate entrepreneurial values and import dynamic styles of leadership” (Newman 2001, pp. 79, 85). Vogel and Masal (2012) emphasized the importance of leadership considering the changes in the socio-economic situation and the financial squeeze and austerity measures. They assert that in the public sector there is a greater emphasis on participative leadership because the rules are set leaving not much room for maneuver for the public leaders. Leadership is conceived as a process of making the decisions. Gemmill and Oakley (1992) defined leadership as a social process of dynamic collaboration between individuals and organization members with intellectual and social interactions. According to one analysis, “[the] leadership process is like a river. Contained by its bed (the culture), it can be said to be flowing in one direction, yet, upon close examination, parts of it flow sideways, in circles, or even backward relative to the overall direction. It is constantly changing in speed and strength and even reshapes its own container” (Gemmill and Oakley 1992, p. 124). Leadership is an ability to get others to do what they don’t want to do and like it (Cohen et al. 1984). Leadership is considered to be the influence of a person to get followers get something extraordinary happen (ibid.). It is a process of using power to obtain interpersonal
