Keith Grint
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199244898
- eISBN:
- 9780191697401
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199244898.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies, HRM / IR
Leadership is still much discussed, studied, and sought after, even though we now live in supposedly more democratic times with flatter organizations and empowered employees. But how can we best ...
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Leadership is still much discussed, studied, and sought after, even though we now live in supposedly more democratic times with flatter organizations and empowered employees. But how can we best understand leadership? Are leaders born or made? Do they have particular traits or are we all potential leaders? Do the requirements for leadership change over time or are there timeless patterns? Do traditional approaches help us to pick and develop leaders or are there alternative ways that advance our understanding? This book investigates the notion of leadership in a series of historical case studies and rich essay portraits of some of the most famous, and infamous, leaders (e.g. Florence Nightingale, Richard Branson, Horatio Nelson, Martin Luther King, Henry Ford, etc.). The scenarios are drawn from right across the spectrum to include business, politics, society, and the military. The first part of the book considers four sets of parallel cases where leadership appears to be a major explanation of success and failure. The second part takes the four critical issues arising from these parallel cases (identity, strategic vision, organizational tactics, and persuasive communication) and explores them in detail. One main reason we have such difficulty in explaining and enhancing leadership, the author argues, is because we often adopt perspectives and models that obscure rather than illuminate the issues involved. The reliance upon traditional scientific analysis has not provided the anticipated advances in our understanding because leadership is more fruitfully considered as an art, or more exactly an array of arts, rather than as a science.Less
Leadership is still much discussed, studied, and sought after, even though we now live in supposedly more democratic times with flatter organizations and empowered employees. But how can we best understand leadership? Are leaders born or made? Do they have particular traits or are we all potential leaders? Do the requirements for leadership change over time or are there timeless patterns? Do traditional approaches help us to pick and develop leaders or are there alternative ways that advance our understanding? This book investigates the notion of leadership in a series of historical case studies and rich essay portraits of some of the most famous, and infamous, leaders (e.g. Florence Nightingale, Richard Branson, Horatio Nelson, Martin Luther King, Henry Ford, etc.). The scenarios are drawn from right across the spectrum to include business, politics, society, and the military. The first part of the book considers four sets of parallel cases where leadership appears to be a major explanation of success and failure. The second part takes the four critical issues arising from these parallel cases (identity, strategic vision, organizational tactics, and persuasive communication) and explores them in detail. One main reason we have such difficulty in explaining and enhancing leadership, the author argues, is because we often adopt perspectives and models that obscure rather than illuminate the issues involved. The reliance upon traditional scientific analysis has not provided the anticipated advances in our understanding because leadership is more fruitfully considered as an art, or more exactly an array of arts, rather than as a science.
KEITH KEITH
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199244898
- eISBN:
- 9780191697401
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199244898.003.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies, HRM / IR
This chapter discusses four approaches in understanding leadership—trait approaches, contingency approaches, situational approaches, and the constitutive approaches. It defines leadership as an art, ...
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This chapter discusses four approaches in understanding leadership—trait approaches, contingency approaches, situational approaches, and the constitutive approaches. It defines leadership as an art, or rather an array of arts—more than a science—which might account for the four paradoxes that have bedevilled its understanding: it appears to have more to do with invention than analysis, despite claims to the contrary; it appears to operate on the basis of indeterminacy whilst claiming to be deterministic; it appears to be rooted in irony rather than truth; it usually resorts to a constructed identity but claims a reflective identity. The chapter then explores these four paradoxes and suggests how people might adopt the metaphors of art as a way of understanding them better. It notes that leadership is critically concerned with establishing and coordinating the relationships between four things: identity, strategic vision, organizational tactics, and persuasive communication.Less
This chapter discusses four approaches in understanding leadership—trait approaches, contingency approaches, situational approaches, and the constitutive approaches. It defines leadership as an art, or rather an array of arts—more than a science—which might account for the four paradoxes that have bedevilled its understanding: it appears to have more to do with invention than analysis, despite claims to the contrary; it appears to operate on the basis of indeterminacy whilst claiming to be deterministic; it appears to be rooted in irony rather than truth; it usually resorts to a constructed identity but claims a reflective identity. The chapter then explores these four paradoxes and suggests how people might adopt the metaphors of art as a way of understanding them better. It notes that leadership is critically concerned with establishing and coordinating the relationships between four things: identity, strategic vision, organizational tactics, and persuasive communication.
