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The bumpy road to exercising leadership : Fragmentations in meaning and practice

Alvesson, Mats LU and Jonsson, Anna LU (2018) In Leadership 14(1). p.40-57
Abstract
The present study focuses on a manager’s understanding of leadership and how this guides – or does not guide practice. The paper reports an empirical in-depth study of a middle manager in an international manufacturing company. We link our discussion to both – the mainstream leadership studies, which assume that managers have a solid type of leadership behavior, and authors with a meaning-oriented, linguistic approach to leadership, in which language, self-awareness, and behavior are linked. The present study suggests that leadership attempts can vary, be divisive, and that a manager’s advocacy efforts are driven by a multitude of different, partly opposing, forces, meaning a decoupling of ideas and behavior in leadership practice. The... (More)
The present study focuses on a manager’s understanding of leadership and how this guides – or does not guide practice. The paper reports an empirical in-depth study of a middle manager in an international manufacturing company. We link our discussion to both – the mainstream leadership studies, which assume that managers have a solid type of leadership behavior, and authors with a meaning-oriented, linguistic approach to leadership, in which language, self-awareness, and behavior are linked. The present study suggests that leadership attempts can vary, be divisive, and that a manager’s advocacy efforts are driven by a multitude of different, partly opposing, forces, meaning a decoupling of ideas and behavior in leadership practice. The paper raises the question of whether managers’ meanings of leadership correspond with what they do in practice. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Identity, managing, qualitative research, practice, relational leadership
in
Leadership
volume
14
issue
1
pages
40 - 57
publisher
SAGE Publications
external identifiers
  • scopus:85041816071
ISSN
1742-7169
DOI
10.1177/1742715016644671
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
cd85b9d1-593a-464b-9b01-8be551bfcfca
date added to LUP
2016-06-29 08:47:51
date last changed
2022-04-16 18:09:31
@article{cd85b9d1-593a-464b-9b01-8be551bfcfca,
  abstract     = {{The present study focuses on a manager’s understanding of leadership and how this guides – or does not guide practice. The paper reports an empirical in-depth study of a middle manager in an international manufacturing company. We link our discussion to both – the mainstream leadership studies, which assume that managers have a solid type of leadership behavior, and authors with a meaning-oriented, linguistic approach to leadership, in which language, self-awareness, and behavior are linked. The present study suggests that leadership attempts can vary, be divisive, and that a manager’s advocacy efforts are driven by a multitude of different, partly opposing, forces, meaning a decoupling of ideas and behavior in leadership practice. The paper raises the question of whether managers’ meanings of leadership correspond with what they do in practice.}},
  author       = {{Alvesson, Mats and Jonsson, Anna}},
  issn         = {{1742-7169}},
  keywords     = {{Identity; managing; qualitative research; practice; relational leadership}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{40--57}},
  publisher    = {{SAGE Publications}},
  series       = {{Leadership}},
  title        = {{The bumpy road to exercising leadership : Fragmentations in meaning and practice}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1742715016644671}},
  doi          = {{10.1177/1742715016644671}},
  volume       = {{14}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}