Functional Leadership Theories

Functional leadership theories are about the concept that leaders perform action and are at the centre of the performance. In the current world, great leaders are judged on their actions by the society. Celebrities and sports stars are often portrayed as leaders and they feature in several media and society accepts them due to their extraordinary quality of work. In the past, performance of kings made them great or not so great. The concept is debatable whether is nature or nurture, which one of the two or both plays a role in human behaviour to be a leader.

Situational leadership theories suggest that although leaders have their own personalities and characteristics, until the right situation arises, actions are not highlighted. Nelson Mandela

In the rural areas, there is higher interaction between the leaders and the community. Certain groups in the rural areas can be dominant and they determine the style and type of leadership. Human relationship has higher in rural areas have value when compared to urban areas. All port’s definition of leadership is related to rural area leadership traits. ‘Leadership according to our present usage means the direct, face to face contact between leaders and followers; it is personal social control’. Although there is no agreement to which traits are more significant in rural areas, Dwight emphasis that good physique, self-assertiveness, self-confidence, superior mental stability, amiability, friendliness and sympathy are the some of the traits displayed by the rural are leaders. Trade mentioned ten qualities of leaders as more useful in rural areas namely, physical and nervous energy, a sense of direction and purpose, friendliness and affection, integrity, technical mastery, decisiveness, intelligence, teaching skills and faith (Mondal,

The Gemeinschaft theory is based on human relations and having a clear concept of one’s position in the society. Rural community knows each other in detail and often have similar norms and values of life (Daley & Avant, 2013). In social exchange theory, it has been recognise that resources are scarce and limited in rural areas; and hence people often use barter system style of living in rural areas. It finds the people and increase interactions amongst the community (Mackie, 2012). The strength perspective recognises that in rural areas a group or an individual with strength in one area would benefit others in exchange with another group or an individual in another area. A degree of deficit exists due to geographical location and availability of oral recourses and therefore strength perspective is used to fill in this gap. The rural communities understand their roles and environment and help each other with their strength perspectives (Daley & Pierce,