Mapping the intellectual structure of modern leadership studies

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore and map the intellectual structure of leadership studies during 1997‐2006. This paper also attempts to help researchers identify the important publications and the influential scholars as well as the correlations among these publications using citation and co‐citation.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, co‐citation analysis and social network analysis techniques are used to research knowledge network of the leadership literature by analyzing 31,232 cited references of 2,322 articles from two leadership related journals in social science citation index and science citation index databases.

Findings

Four factors emerged in this paper: effectiveness of leadership style, leadership theory and development, leadership categorization, and current issues of leadership research.

Originality/value

This paper provides management researchers a tool for evaluating leadership publications and provides a systematic and objective means of determining the relative importance of different knowledge nodes in the development of the leadership research.

Citation

Tseng, H., Tung, H. and Duan, C. (2010), "Mapping the intellectual structure of modern leadership studies", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 57-70. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731011010380