Relational Leadership: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda

Abstract

Relational leadership research has been growing with great potential in recent years. The purpose of this review was to provide an overview of the scholarly publications on relational leadership, drawing on 277 articles published between 2000 and 2023. The results found that the relational leadership research focused on five major categories. Notably, 59% of the studies had been published in the past six years. The analysis revealed that 21% of the articles were conceptual, 68% were empirical, and 11% were research reviews. The analysis also showed that long-term qualitative studies should be increased. The analysis identified that authors from the USA take the lead. However, it was seen that there were no authors in regions such as North and West Asia, North Africa, and South America. All in all, this review draws a framework for the existing literature and provides a future research agenda.