Three Presidents, Three Paths:

Navigating Leadership in Transformative Eras

Autores

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51359/1679-1827.2025.266454

Palavras-chave:

Leadership styles, Relational leadership, Political populism, Presidentialism in the United States

Resumo

Purpose: this article presents a comparative analysis of the leadership styles of three U.S. presidents - William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and Donald Trump - examining their approaches within the context of their respective historical eras and through the lens of contemporary leadership theories.

Methodology: of a theoretical nature, this work is based on a comparative analysis of the leadership styles of three US presidents.

Research, Practical & Social implications: McKinley, a consensus-driven leader of the Progressive Era, emphasized institutional stability and collaborative decision-making. Roosevelt, his immediate successor, brought a more dynamic and charismatic style, combining robust nationalism with reformist policies that laid the foundation for contemporary presidential activism. Trump, leading in an era of political polarization and digital media dominance, disrupts traditional norms with a populist and media-centric approach. By analyzing governance, public communication, relational dynamics, and responses to crises, this study explores how their leadership styles align or diverge from contemporary approaches, such as relational leadership theories.

Originality/value: the article highlights the interplay between historical context, individual traits, and societal expectations in shaping leadership effectiveness, offering insights for both the study and practice of leadership in contemporary contexts.

Biografia do Autor

Anderson de Souza Sant'Anna, FGV EAESP

Anderson de Souza Sant'Anna é professor adjunto do Departamento de Administração Geral e de Recursos Humanos da FGV-EAESP. É pós-doutor em Teoria Psicanálitica pela Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, doutor em Administração, doutor em Arquitetura e Urbanismo, mestre e graduado em Administração pela Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). É pesquisador produtividade do Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), membro da Câmara de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas da Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) e membro co-fundador da Associação Lusófona de Administração e Gestão (ALGA). É também pesquisador do Centro de Pesquisas do Trabalho, Saúde e Efetividade Organizacional - CRITEOS (HEC Montreal) e do Núcleo de Estudos sobre Organizações, Sociedade e Subjetividade - NOSS (CEFET-MG), psicanalista sócio do Círculo Psicanalítico de Minas Gerais (CPMG) e membro do Instituto Sephora de Estudos de Orientação Lacaniana (UFRJ). Atua como editor associado e membro de conselho de diversas revistas brasileiras no campo da Administração. Foi professor da Fundação Dom Cabral (FDC), tendo como foco de sua experiência as áreas de comportamento organizacional e gestão de pessoas, em particular, nos temas de liderança, desenho organizacional, qualidade de vida no trabalho, carreiras e competências.

Daniela Diniz, Universidade Federal de São João del rei (UFSJ)

Professora e Pesquisadora da Universidade Federal de São João Del Rei (UFSJ), vinculada ao Departamento de Ciências Administrativas e Contábeis - DECAC.Professora do Mestrado PROFNIT (Programa Stricto Sensu em Propriedade Intelectual e Transferência de Tecnologia para a Inovação da UFSJ).Pós-doutora pelo Programa de Pós-Graduação em Administração da PUC Minas. Doutora em Administração pela UFMG na linha de 'Gestão e Tecnologias Gerenciais'. Mestre em Administração pela PUC Minas na linha de 'Inovação e Conhecimento'.Possui experiência em docência e pesquisa em instituições de ensino, como a Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP), a Fundação Dom Cabral (FDC) e a Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV).Sua trajetória acadêmica inclui participação em projetos de pesquisa e publicações nas áreas de Inovação e Transferência de Tecnologia; Liderança; Empreendedorismo, dentre outros temas. 

Referências

Allison, G. (2017). Destined for war: Can America and China escape Thu-cydides’s trap? Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Bass, B. M. (1990). Bass Stogdill’s hand-book of leadership: Theory, research, and managerial applications. Free Press.

Bass, B. M., & Bass, R. (2009). The Bass handbook of leadership: Theory, re-search, and managerial applications. Free Press.

Bennett, N., Wise, C., Woods, P. A., & Harvey, J. A. (2003). Distributed lead-ership: A review of literature. Na-tional College for School Leadership.

Blinder, A. S. (2020). Stimulus without debt: What history tells us about tackling the deficit. Foreign Affairs, 99(3), 46–55.

Brands, H. W. (1997). T.R.: The last romantic. Basic Books.

Brinkley, D. (2009). The wilderness war-rior: Theodore Roosevelt and the cru-sade for America. Harper.

Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. Harper Row.

Cohn, N., & Quealy, K. (2020, Novem-ber 6). How voter turnout in 2020 broke records in nearly every way. The New York Times.

Collin, R. W. (2007). The environmental protection agency: Cleaning up Ameri-ca’s act. Greenwood.

Conger, J. A., & Kanungo, R. N. (1998). Charismatic leadership in organizations. Sage.

Digital Forensic Research Lab. (2021). #ElectionWatch: The impact of disin-formation on democracy. Atlantic Council. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org

Fletcher, J. K. (2004). The paradox of postheroic leadership: An essay on gender, power, and transformational change. The Leadership Quarterly, 15(5), 647-661.

Fuchs, C. (2021). Donald Trump: A crit-ical theory perspective. Emerald Publishing.

Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelli-gence: Why it can matter more than IQ. Bantam Books.

Gould, L. L. (1980). The presidency of William McKinley. University Press of Kansas.

Gould, L. L. (2011). The presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. University Press of Kansas.

Graham, D. A. (2021, January 7). The lasting legacy of Donald Trump’s po-litical polarization. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com

Greenleaf, R. K. (1977). Servant leader-ship: A journey into the nature of le-gitimate power and greatness. Pau-list Press.

Haberman, M. (2022). Confidence man: The making of Donald Trump and the breaking of America. Penguin Press.

Heifetz, R. A. (1994). Leadership without easy answers. Belknap Press of Har-vard University Press.

Heifetz, R. A., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). The practice of adaptive lead-ership: Tools and tactics for changing your organization and the world. Harvard Business Press.

Heritage Foundation. (2022). Mandate for leadership 2025: Policy prescrip-tions for a conservative future. Her-itage Foundation. https://www.heritage.org

Hixson, W. L. (2003). Murder, culture, and injustice: The complex legacy of William McKinley. The Kent State University Press.

Katz, C. J. (2020). Trade policy in the Trump era: An economic nationalist agenda. Journal of Global Trade Com-merce, 12(4), 150-162.

Levitsky, S., & Ziblatt, D. (2018). How democracies die. Crown Publishing Group.

May, E. R. (1961). Imperial democracy: The emergence of America as a great power. Harcourt, Brace World.

Milkis, S. M., & Nelson, M. (2018). The American presidency: Origins and de-velopment, 1776-2018. CQ Press.

Morgan, H. W. (2003). William McKin-ley and his America. The Kent State University Press.

Morris, E. (2001). Theodore Rex. Ran-dom House.

Mounk, Y. (2018). The people vs. democ-racy: Why our freedom is in danger and how to save it. Harvard Univer-sity Press.

Mudde, C. (2017). Populism: A very short introduction. Oxford Universi-ty Press.

O’Reilly, C. A., & Tushman, M. L. (2016). Lead and disrupt: How to solve the innovator’s dilemma. Stanford Business Books.

Osnos, E. (2021). Wildland: The making of America’s fury. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Ott, B. L. (2017). The age of Twitter: Donald J. Trump and the politics of debasement. Critical Studies in Me-dia Communication, 34(1), 59-68.

Ott, B. L., & Dickinson, G. (2019). The Twitter presidency: Donald J. Trump and the politics of White rage. Routledge.

Pew Research Center. (2020). Trump outpaces Obama on Twitter engagement, but trails on overall following. Pew Re-search Center. https://www.pewresearch.org

Phillips, K. L. (2003). William McKin-ley: A biography. Nova Science Pub-lishers.

Raisch, S., & Birkinshaw, J. (2008). Or-ganizational ambidexterity: Ante-cedents, outcomes, and moderators. Journal of Management, 34(3), 375-409.

Silber, W. L. (2007). When Washington shut down Wall Street: The great fi-nancial crisis of 1914 and the origins of America’s monetary supremacy. Princeton University Press.

Skocpol, T., & Fiorina, M. P. (Eds.). (1999). Civic engagement in American democracy. Brookings Institution Press and Russell Sage Foundation.

Skowronek, S. (1997). The politics presi-dents make: Leadership from John Adams to Bill Clinton. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Stuenkel, O. (2020). The BRICS and the future of global order. Lexington Books.

Trask, D. F. (1996). The war with Spain in 1898. University of Nebraska Press.

Uhl-Bien, M. (2006). Relational leader-ship theory: Exploring the social pro-cesses of leadership and organizing. The Leadership Quarterly, 17(6), 654-676.

Downloads

Publicado

2025-07-03

Edição

v. 23 (2025)

Seção

Gestão de Pessoas e Relações de Trabalho

Licença

Copyright (c) 2025 Anderson de Souza Sant'Anna, Daniela Diniz

Creative Commons License

Este trabalho está licenciado sob uma licença Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Os trabalhos assinados são de responsabilidade exclusiva do(s) autor(es).

Os direitos, inclusive os de tradução, são reservados.

É permitido citar os trabalhos publicados sem autorização prévia desde que seja identificada a fonte.