| Summary: | Owing to the shifts taking place in both the external and internal business environments, leaders today find it increasingly difficult to sustain a competitive edge in the marketplace. The South African financial services industry, within which the target organisations of this study fell, is also strongly affected by these trends. Some of these trends are increasing competition in a globalising world, the knowledgeable, globalised customer of today who demands lower cost, innovative and quality products or services which are personalised and individualised, which in turn requires cutting-edge knowledge and technology; the diverse knowledge worker and the virtual workplace and organisation of the future. The imperative to organisations in identifying and developing their leaders to drive the sustainability, the profitability and the overallcompetitiveness of their organisation have become major challenges of the 21st century. In the process of trying to make sense of the complex environmental context and the growing demands of the competitive business environment, the question as to whether the existing leadership models are still a relevant to the 21st century work environment came the fore. The purpose of the study thus was born out of trying to understand, to make sense of and anticipate the impact of the changing environmental context on leadership. The intention was to find an answer to the effects of this environmental context on existing leadership models and vice versa. === Prof. Theo H. Veldsman
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