Understanding of Leadership in Distance Education Management

Leadership

Although leadership is seen as one of the important reasons for success or failure in organizations, it is clearly understood that success cannot be limited to leader’s behavior or performance (Halpin, 1956; Bass & Avolio, 1995). Leadership is not only seen as activities of guidance for a group of people or an organization, but also should be characteristics such as developing vision, networking people in order to bring together around a vision, planning and organizing (Enck, 2002). Leaders cannot limited to only these expectations. People are expecting of many characteristics from a leader such as being the initiator (Çelik, 2007), charismatic (Collin & Porras, 1994), gifted (Maccoby, 2000), motivator (Gibb, 1967; Pahal, 1999), visionary (Covey, 1990), problem solver (Mackenzie, 1949), meeting the requirements (Erdoğan, 1991) and etc. These expectations put the pressure on the leaders and sometimes it can be as cruel as not giving the opportunity to breathe (Cunningham, 1976).