The great disappearing act: difficulties in doing "leadership"
(2003) In Leadership Quarterly 14(3). p.359-381- Abstract
- We address ideas and talk about leadership in a research and development (R&D) company. The meaning that middle and senior managers ascribe to leadership is explored. We show how initial claims about leadership values and style tend to break down when managers are asked to expand on how they perceive their leadership and account for what they actually do in this respect. We raise strong doubts about leadership as a construct saying something valuable and valid about what managers do in this kind of setting. We also argue that thinking about leadership needs to take seriously the possibility of the nonexistence of leadership as a distinct phenomenon with great relevance for understanding organizations and relations in workplaces.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/900432
- author
- Alvesson, Mats LU and Sveningsson, Stefan LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2003
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Leadership Quarterly
- volume
- 14
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 359 - 381
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000182807800008
- scopus:0037410331
- ISSN
- 1048-9843
- DOI
- 10.1016/S1048-9843(03)00031-6
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 739062c4-bc3c-4a5c-9aa3-4ca1b5e00f81 (old id 900432)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 16:56:03
- date last changed
- 2022-04-23 01:27:17
@article{739062c4-bc3c-4a5c-9aa3-4ca1b5e00f81, abstract = {{We address ideas and talk about leadership in a research and development (R&D) company. The meaning that middle and senior managers ascribe to leadership is explored. We show how initial claims about leadership values and style tend to break down when managers are asked to expand on how they perceive their leadership and account for what they actually do in this respect. We raise strong doubts about leadership as a construct saying something valuable and valid about what managers do in this kind of setting. We also argue that thinking about leadership needs to take seriously the possibility of the nonexistence of leadership as a distinct phenomenon with great relevance for understanding organizations and relations in workplaces.}}, author = {{Alvesson, Mats and Sveningsson, Stefan}}, issn = {{1048-9843}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{3}}, pages = {{359--381}}, publisher = {{Elsevier}}, series = {{Leadership Quarterly}}, title = {{The great disappearing act: difficulties in doing "leadership"}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1048-9843(03)00031-6}}, doi = {{10.1016/S1048-9843(03)00031-6}}, volume = {{14}}, year = {{2003}}, }