Journal ArticleDOI
All things to all people? Perceptions, attributions, and constructions of leadership
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In this article, the authors employ an interpretive approach to explore the constructions placed upon the phenomenon of leadership by practicing managers and the particular meanings and assumptions that the term conveys.Abstract:
Recent theory and research has begun to question many of the ontological and epistemological assumptions underpinning mainstream perspectives on leadership, emphasizing its attributional basis and the socially constructed and contested nature of its meaning. This paper attempts to contribute to this emerging critique by employing an interpretive approach in order to explore the constructions placed upon the phenomenon of leadership by practicing managers and the particular meanings and assumptions that the term conveys. The paper draws upon interviews with managers in the construction industry to develop its main argument: that radical critiques of mainstream leadership theory and research often lose sight of the role of subjective interpretation and agency in the formulation and enactment of the “social myth” of leadership and that an interpretive approach, which explores individuals' own “implicit leadership theories,” can make an important contribution to the further understanding of leadership as a socially constructed phenomenon.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
Qualitative research on leadership: A critical but appreciative review
TL;DR: The authors reviewed a large number of articles that derive from qualitative research on leadership that were published prior to 2004 in peer-reviewed journals and found that qualitative research has made some important contributions to certain areas of leadership, such as the role of leaders in the change process, but it is sometimes not as distinctive when compared to quantitative research, as might be supposed.
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Exploring social constructions of followership: A qualitative study
TL;DR: This article conducted interviews with employees in various industries to examine how individuals socially construct their roles as followers and to explore followership schemas and contextual influences that relate to these constructions, finding that while some individuals social construct definitions around passivity, deference and obedience, others emphasize the importance of constructively questioning and challenging their leaders.
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Critical leadership studies: The case for critical performativity
Mats Alvesson,André Spicer +1 more
TL;DR: The authors posit a performative critique of leadership that emphasizes tactics of circumspect care, progressive pragmatism and searching for present potentialities, and use these tactics to sketch out a practice of deliberated leadership that involves collective reflection on when, what kind and if leadership is appropriate.
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Revisiting the Meaning of Leadership
TL;DR: In this paper, a typology of executive behaviors is proposed as a foundation for a systematic exploration of the meaning-making capacity of leaders, and a discussion of the relationship between the ability of leaders to infuse meaning and their ability to impact on performance is discussed.
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Leaders in Context: Postpositivist Approaches to Understanding Educational Leadership:
Peter Gronn,Peter Ribbins +1 more
TL;DR: Two alternative methodologies that acknowledge the importance of context in the social construction of leaders and leadership systems are ethnography and biography, and discuss the problems and possibilities inherent in each, and provide illustrative examples of their advantages for theory building as discussed by the authors.
References
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Book
Leadership in Organizations
TL;DR: This book presents a meta-leadership framework for a post-modern view of leadership that considers the role of language, identity, and self-consistency in the development of leaders.
Book
The nature of managerial work
TL;DR: The Manager's Working Roles: A Survey of the Managerial Work of Five Chief Executives as discussed by the authors is a survey of the work of five chief executives in the 1990s.
Book
Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge
Warren G. Bennis,Burt Nanus +1 more
TL;DR: In this age of "process," with downsizing and restructuring affecting many workplaces, companies have fallen trap to lack of communication and distrust, and vision and leadership are needed more than ever before.
Book
Leaders : the strategies for taking charge
Warren G. Bennis,Burt Nanus +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the key and pivotal factor needed to enhance human resources is leadership, and that leaders have failed to instill vision, meaning and trust in their followers.