The science of leader power

Abstract

We provide a brief overview of why and how power is important to leaders. The scholarly fields of power and leadership both have rich histories yet have largely developed independently of one another, even though they both heavily inform one another. Our intention is to bring these two topics closer and create more synergies for power and leadership scholars. In this introductory editorial, we briefly review current literature that has examined both of these subjects in tandem. We then look at the field of power more broadly and explain how it has evolved recently in order to provide insights on what still needs to be done to ensure rigorous study of leader power. Next, we summarize the papers we accepted for the special issue and explain how they address current scholarly needs on the science of leader power. Finally, we conclude with an encouraging note for more research dedicated to bridging the fields of leadership and power.