Beliefs About Leadership: Perspective of Turkey’s Administrators and Leading Business People

Abstract

The goal of this study is to understand how leading executives, governors and well-known business people in Turkey perceive leadership. This study addresses this nagging question on leadership: leadership is natural or nurtured? With this in mind, administrators and leading business people were asked whether they believe that leaders are born or made. Using this as the main query, about a hundred interviews were conducted, based on which the study elaborates and discusses how personal evaluations of leadership may contribute to construction
of leadership identity. In addition, this study investigates the effect of demographical variables on leadership perceptions and aims at understanding the factors, such as demographics, that contribute to construction of leader
identity. Although majority of the respondents believe that leaders are born with the qualities and characteristics needed to become a leader a, most of these individuals state that their education is an indispensable part of leadership, both for moving up to a leading position and for making a success out of it. Individuals who claim that leaders are born also communicate a leader identity that cannot be learned or imitated. The paper put forward the perspectives of Turkey’s leading administrators and business people by addressing the nagging question on leadership: Leadership is natural or nurtured? Study reveals the beliefs of the individuals that contribute to construction of leader identity.