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Salient features of Jinnah's politics

Nadeem Yousaf (International Department, Niels Brock, Copenhagen, Denmark)

International Journal of Public Leadership

ISSN: 2056-4929

Article publication date: 9 February 2015

187

Abstract

Purpose

Jinnah was, to some extent, a successful leader in obtaining his goals of becoming the only spokesperson for Muslims in India and gaining a piece of land for Pakistan but the main question is whether these achievements can be attributed to transactional or transformational strategies. Has he managed transactional or transformational change in terms of political culture? This point will be discussed in the paper. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

A documentary analysis of behaviors, statements and incidents of Jinnah and other relevant personages.

Findings

The research shows that Jinnah was neither a transformational nor a charismatic leader. Therefore, his success cannot be attributed to his transformational ideology or charismatic personality. The political maneuvers that he adopted by frequently changing his espoused values and theories-in-use are the sources of his transactional success. Moreover, it is the international events and the vested political interests of the British are among the significant reasons that brought him success.

Research limitations/implications

In this work, a detailed comparison has not been made between voluminous theories of leadership because it is beyond the scope of this research. Moreover, it is not the intention of the paper to compare his leadership with that of other leaders; however, the future research in this direction might be useful. Indeed, the relevant leadership examples have been selected from the All India Congress with the major point of reference being the All India Muslim League – the party that brought him real recognition and fame.

Practical implications

It is stressed in the research that overt success is not a sufficient criterion to categorize a leader in a specific category without analyzing espoused theory and theories-in-use. The study will help those researchers who are interested in understanding the current political culture of Pakistan. The research will be helpful in enhancing the debate within the theme of leadership, especially transformational, transactional and charismatic. Moreover, the paper will encourage other researchers to compare Jinnah's leadership with that of other political leaders of the world.

Originality/value

The research is original as Jinnah's leadership from the perspectives of transformational and transactional leadership styles and the espoused theory and theories-in-use has, so far, not been discussed. It presents significant new arguments and information, which will be in the interest of researchers.

Keywords

Citation

Yousaf, N. (2015), "Salient features of Jinnah's politics", International Journal of Public Leadership, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 46-64. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPL-07-2014-0007

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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