‘No More Heroes’: Critical Perspectives on Leadership Romanticism

This paper revisits Meindl et al’s (1985) ‘romance of leadership’ thesis and extends these ideas in a number of inter-related ways. First, it argues that the thesis has sometimes been neglected and/or misinterpreted in subsequent studies. Second, the paper suggests that romanticism is a much broader and more historically rich term with wider implications for leadership studies than originally proposed. Arguing that romanticism stretches beyond leader attribution, we connect leadership theory to a more enduring and naturalistic tradition of romantic thought that has survived and evolved since the mid-18th century. Third, the paper demonstrates the contemporary relevance of the romanticism critique. It reveals how the study of leadership continues to be characterized by romanticizing tendencies in many of its most influential theories, illustrating this argument with reference to spiritual and authentic leadership theories, which only recognize positive engagement with leaders. Equally, the paper suggests that romanticism can shape conceptions not only of leaders, but also of followers, their agency and their (potential for) resistance. We conclude by discussing future possible research directions for the romanticism critique that extend well beyond its original focus on leader attribution to inform a broader critical approach to leadership studies

Surveillance, children and childhood (Editorial)

Editorial. 1st paragraph.In a sense, to be a child is to be under surveillance. Parents watch their children to keep them safe and to correct their behaviour. Teachers keep an eye on students to enforce classroom rules and to maintain discipline. Managers of shopping malls and many other semi-public places use a variety of methods to keep young people under control in order to maintain those spaces for adult usage, sensibilities and consumption. Depending on age, which is critical in this context, it can be argued that surveillance as care is a necessary condition of nurturing and educating children and young people

Mapping the aesthetics of leadership development through participant perspectives

This enquiry sets out to explore leadership development as an intrinsically aesthetic experience, drawing on the reflexivity of participants from four intensive, long-term leadership development experiences to claim that the very architecture of knowing and experience in leadership development may be interpreted as shaped aesthetically. Five different aesthetic discourses are identified and named as partiality, dissipation, disruption, sensation and connectedness. The interdependence between these is then examined in one extended participant narrative. What emerges is an understanding of leadership development as a felt experience, where any leadership concepts are known and experienced through the lens of a vivid milieu of affective, visceral, sensory, embodied and relational processes, which aesthetically shape what participants come to recognise as leadership. We propose that paying attention to the aesthetics of leadership development has the potential to radically change how leadership development is researched, practiced and understood

The potential impacts of microgeneration and low-carbon heating on distribution networks

Micro-generation and low-carbon heat could potentially form part of the UK's decarbonisation strategy. This study examines the potential impacts of micro-CHP, solar PV and air-source heat pumps on distribution networks, using minute-scale electricity generation and demand data from field studies. These data are augmented by simulated data for a fuel cell micro-CHP profile, based on the heat demand of an average UK household. The value of using minute-scale rather than lower frequency data is more accurate information on peaks in household demand. An analysis of the economic implications of micro-CHP concludes that micro-CHP would have to fall in price for it to be economically viable for the household. Moreover, emissions benefits are limited and prone to decline. The supply and demand profiles of the various technologies were used with network design software (IPSA-Power), and models of real world distribution networks, to understand their potential impacts on distribution networks. Two sub-urban networks were analysed, with similar results, indicating the results can be generalised. For each minute of data, a steady state load flow analysis was performed in order to approximate a dynamic power system analysis. Stirling engine micro-CHP has only minor impacts on the distribution network, principally through reducing power losses. Fuel cell micro-CHP can have considerable benefits through reducing losses and power flows, however one more than 60% of homes install fuel cell micro-CHP these benefits will be reduced. The other technologies tend to have greater detrimental impacts on networks through less frequent but greater voltage rise (solar PV), increased power flows (heat pumps) and increased losses (both solar PV and heat pumps). Micro-CHP can worsen the effects of solar PV and mitigate the effects of heat pumps if the technologies are deployed on the same network

Understanding sovereign leadership as a response to terrorism: A post-foundational analysis

This study seeks to better understand how notions of sovereign power as a response to terrorism are built and bolstered through use of the signifier ‘leadership’. Through a post-foundational analysis of the speeches, press conferences and writings of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, we theorise ‘sovereign leadership’ as the deployment of the signifier leadership in ways that foreclose language so as to normalise the discourse and acts of sovereign power. Our key finding is that sovereign leadership offers a (misleadingly) straightforward solution to the complex problem of terrorism through foreclosing language so that alternative responses are excluded. In exploring articulations of sovereign leadership, we illuminate its contingency, and therefore, also its contestability, within a system of discursive resources. We posit three foreclosing moments that are drawn upon to bolster the urgency, affective salience and justness of sovereign leadership: emergency, positivity and vulnerability. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of our study for interpreting articulations of leadership in everyday organisational and political life

Being more with less: Exploring the flexible political leadership identities of government ministers

The paper focuses on the identity work of government ministers, exploring how they experience themselves in relation to contemporary demands and discourses of leadership and democracy. We note a substantial number of studies seeking to develop theories of political and public leadership, particularly in more collaborative directions, but no studies that seek to explore how such demands are experienced by the political leaders who occupy leadership roles. We adopt a poststructuralist approach to identity as a means of empirically exploring how government ministers construct their identities. Drawing on 51 interviews with senior politicians, we propose a model of flexible political leadership identity, which argues that just as public agencies in these austere times are asked to do more with less, so political leaders seem to need to be more but with less perceived discretionary power. We propose four identities that answer quite different leadership demands: ‘the consultor’, ‘the traveller,’ ‘the adjudicator’ and ‘the master.’ These are semi-occupied identities, partial fulfilments of contemporary but contradictory leadership discourses. We conclude the paper with a reflection on how our findings might inform future research and leadership development interventions

‘I Wanted More Women in, but . . .’: Oblique Resistance to Gender Equality Initiatives

Despite many interventions designed to change the gender demographics of positional leadership roles in organizations and professions, women continue to be under-represented in most arenas. Here we explore gender equality (GE) interventions through the example of positive discrimination quotas in politics to develop an understanding of resistance to them. Our case is the British Labour Party, analysing interviews with the people who designed, implemented and resisted the system of all-women shortlists. We develop the notion of ‘oblique resistance’ to describe an indirect form of resistance to the erosion of patriarchal power, which never directly confronts the issue of GE, yet actively undermines it. Oblique resistance is practised in three key ways: through appeals to ethics, by marking territory and in appeals to convention. We conclude by considering the conceptual and practical implications of oblique resistance, when direct and more overt resistance to GE is increasingly socially unacceptable

The worlds of rural children : deconstructing adult discourses of the rural.

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN019477 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo