The Research Topics of Leadership: Bibliometric Analysis from 1923 to 2019

Abstract

Leadership phenomenon is characterized by unflagging interest among scientists in the field of management. This is one of the reasons why various theories, concepts and topics of leadership are propounded in literature. The current paper examined the trends of leadership publications, the most common topics of leadership, and whether the research topics have followed a coherent progression. A literature review was conducted in order to understand what has been done until now. Using a bibliometric analysis, the current paper summarized 12,235 publications on leadership from the Web of Science database, spanning the period from 1923 to 2019. The findings obtained indicate growing number of leadership publications and the following research topics: leadership management, leadership performance, leadership model, leaders' behaviors, leaders' personalities and team leadership which are related to each other. Moreover, the results also show a weakening interest in 'hard' aspects of leadership in a 'soft' direction.