Editing Functional leadership model (section)

{{Short description|Theory of Leadership}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=February 2019}}
[[Image:John Adair's Action Centred Leadership Model.png|thumb|right|[[John Adair (author)|John Adair]]'s Action Centred Leadership Model]]
'''Functional leadership theory''' (Hackman & Walton, 1986; McGrath, 1962) is a theory for addressing specific leader behaviors expected to contribute to organizational or unit effectiveness. This theory argues that the leader's main job is to see that whatever is necessary to group needs is taken care of; thus, a leader can be said to have done their job well when contributing to group effectiveness and cohesion.

Functional leadership theories are developed by studying successful leaders and identifying the actions and behaviors they show. Extensive studies with a large amount of data make it possible to correlate what leaders do, i.e., their actions or functions, with their successful results.

The Functional theory of leadership emphasizes how an [[organization]] or task is being led rather than who has been formally assigned a leadership role. In the functional [[leadership]] model, leadership does not rest with one person but rests on a set of [[behaviors]] by the group that gets things done. Any group member can perform these behaviors so that any member can participate in leadership.

One of the best-known and most influential functional theories of leadership, used in many [[leadership development]] programs, is [[John Adair (author)|John Adair]]'s "Action-Centred Leadership".