Transformational Leadership and Ethics between Agamemnon and Hector: A Contrastive Analysis of the Iliad
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Abstract
This qualitative study aimed to investigate leader ethical values of ancient Greek culture portrayed through two main leader characters in the Iliad, and to examine the conformity of leader’s ethical values of the studied characters in the Iliad and those in Bernard M. Bass’s transformational leadership theory and Peter G. Northouse’s ethical concept. The main leader characters under examination were Agamemnon and Hector. The data were collected from the narratives describing actions and thoughts and dialogues of those characters. The findings showed that all ethical attributes for leaders in the analysis framework were found from the studied characters, but Agamemnon possessed all of them while Hector fails the attribute of consideration. Agamemnon exhibited his leadership more obviously than Hector. One additional attribute both of them show was precaution and one attribute which was possessed and exhibited effectively by only Agamemnon was being a wise opportunity taker. This attribute facilitated Agamemnon’s success both in victory and in winning his followers’ heart. In contrast, Hector excessively adheres to his heroic valor and his leadership was not flexible. This inflexibility of his leadership obstructed his success. It could be concluded that although transformational leadership was a modern leadership theory, the concept and the ethical attributes of this theory existed in the ancient Greek time. This finding also indicated that, in either ancient or modern society, ethics of leaders was significant and transformational leadership, which highlights leader ethics, was an admirable guideline facilitating leader’s success.
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References
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