Leadership current issue

Hidden Success: A Case Study of Secretary-General Dirk Stikker's Leadership at NATO

Hoogenboezem, J. A. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:45:23 PDT

This study of NATO Secretary-General Dirk Stikker analyses his leadership at NATO. Generally Stikker is seen as an unsuccessful leader because he was not able to solve the differences between European alliance members and the Unites States over nuclear strategy. However, this study argues that this would be a wrong measure of success. NATO was hopelessly deadlocked, and keeping the unity was in itself a hidden success. It shows that success and failure are not judgments that are always obvious and clear, but that interpretation is an important part of the study of leadership.

Leaders' Orientations to Diversity: Two Cases from Education

Lumby, J. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:45:23 PDT

This article explores two case colleges in England to consider how context, conceptualisation, orientation and action interact in relation to diversity issues in leadership. Focus group and individual interview data are analysed. Context is perceived as influential in shaping concepts and action. In one case, the diversity and socio-economic disadvantage of the community create a perceived imperative to address diversity, resulting in multiple conceptions of diversity and systemic action. In the second case, the context of a perceived homogeneous community interacts with an equal opportunities conceptualization of diversity to justify little or no action. A tentative theoretical model is suggested to frame further enquiry.

Leadership as Emotional Labour: The Effortful Accomplishment of Valuing Practices

Iszatt-White, M. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:45:23 PDT

Within the context of an ethnographic study of leadership in the learning and skills sector, this article focuses on the role of leadership in making stafffeel valued (Iszatt-White & Mackenzie-Davey, 2003) and the‘emotional labour’ (Hochschild, 1983) through which leaders’ valuing practices are accomplished. By shadowing college leaders, observation was made of the day-to-day practices through which they sought to give staff a feeling of being valued. The article provides evidence of such‘valuing practices’ before going on to explicate the notion of emotional labour— previously researched largely in the services sector— in the professional context of educational leadership. In doing so, it differentiates professional emotional labour from‘emotional intelligence’ (Goleman, 1995), a more common theme within the management literature. It also explores the role of social identity and value congruence in moderating the‘emotional dissonance’(Ashforth & Humphrey, 1993) which can result from a requirement for prolonged emotion work.

Leadership as the Hybrid Production of Presence(s)

Fairhurst, G. T., Cooren, F. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:45:23 PDT

Leadership scholars and lay actors often attribute a certain presence to great leaders in describing a commanding style or a charismatic personality. However, leadership presence and its mirror concept, absence, have been difficult concepts for researchers to study. This article proposes to redress this short coming using actor-network theory (ANT). In ANT, the focus is on human and nonhuman agents, their hybrid forms, networked socialaction, and macro acting, the latter of which enables leaders or followers to speak on behalf of their organizations. Together with ANT’s emphasis on the role of narrative, this approach directs analysts to the situated construction of actor networks in which leadership presence or absence is attributed. An emphasis on discourse also shows how various actants are imbued with meaning, enabling analysts to unravel networks andflows of power associated with leadership presence/absence. Leadership discourses involving charismatic/transformational leadership are considered as well as the disaster management networking associated with two US Governors, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kathleen Blanco, for their respective handling of the California wildfires and hurricane Katrina.

Book Review: Guido Houben and Tim Maxian Rusche (eds), Leadership as a Vocation. Nomos Publishers, 2008. 221 pp. ISBN: 9783832937478

Jepson, D. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:45:23 PDT

Book Review: Steve Kempster, How Managers Have Learnt to Lead -- Exploring the Development of Leadership Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 253pp. ISBN: 9780230220959

Visram, K. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:45:23 PDT

Call for Papers

Marturano, A. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:45:23 PDT