Discourse on Leadership

Transcription

1 Discourse on Leadership In a wide-ranging and provocative new study, provides a critical analysis of past and present theories of leadership. Spector asserts that our perception of leadership influences who we vote for, who we hire and promote, and ultimately to whom we choose grant our authority. Focusing on leadership in discourse, the book sets out to explore how the notion of leadership has been articulated, studied, and debated by academics, but also by practitioners, journalists, and others who seek to influence the thoughts of others. Paying particular attention to the social, economic, political, intellectual, and historical forces that have helped shape the discussion, Discourse on Leadership offers an insightful historiography of leadership as a concept and how our understanding of it continues to evolve. bert a. spector (PhD, American History) is Associate Professor of International Business and Management at Northeastern University s D Amore-McKim School of Business. His research interests include organizational change, leadership, business model innovation, and management history. His articles have appeared in Leadership, Management & Organizational History and the Harvard Business Review. He is the author/co-author of seven previous books, including The Critical Path to Corporate Renewal which received the Johnson, Smith, and Knisely Award for New Perspectives on Executive Leadership. He has been a visiting professor at MIT s Sloan School of Management and INSEAD.

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3 Discourse on Leadership A Critical Appraisal Northeastern University, Boston

4 University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. Information on this title: / C 2016 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2016 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data Spector, Bert, author. Discourse on leadership : a critical appraisal /. New York : Cambridge University Press, Includes bibliographical references and index. LCCN ISBN (hardback) LCSH: Leadership. Leadership Research. LCC HD57.7.S DDC 303.3/4 dc23 LC record available at ISBN Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

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7 Contents Acknowledgments page viii Prologue: A Discussion without End and the Nature of This Inquiry 1 1 The Great Man and the Beginning of Contemporary Discourse 18 2 More Who than Do and the Trait versus Behavior Debate 33 3 Whistling in the Dark and the Insertion of Power between Followers and Leaders 64 4 The Sublime Myth and the Ideology of Purpose 96 5 (White) Men Named John and the Persistence of Bias No Longer Just Managing and the Misuse of Ideal Types Globalization and the Challenge of Complexity 192 Epilogue: Key Moments in Leadership Discourse and a Plausible Chronological Narrative 216 References 257 Index 298 vii

8 Acknowledgments It is always wise to start acknowledgments by recognizing the invaluable contributions of those closest to you. In the D Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University in Boston, my gratitude (and apologies for being a constant source of pestering!) to Nick Athanassiou, Allan Bird, Paula Caligiuri, Len Glick, Harry Lane, Jeanne McNett, Donald Margotta, Joe Raelin, and Christian Thoroughgood. At the larger university, my thanks to James Dendy (Snell Library), Maureen Kelleher (Sociology), Stephen Nathanson (Philosophy), and Kathrin Zippel (Sociology). I also want to thank Lori Lefkovitz and Tim Cresswell of the Northeastern University s Humanities Center as well as the Humanities Fellows with whom I shared a productive and insight-producing year. Beyond Northeastern, my appreciation for the contributions of Françoise Chevalier (HEC-Paris), David Collinson (Lancaster University Management School), Keith Grint (University of Warwick Business School), Barbara Kellerman (Harvard University Kennedy School of Government), Deborah Kolb (Simmons College and the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiations), Karen Ward Mahar (Siena College), Albert Mills (Saint Mary s University), Andrew Pettigrew (University of Oxford Said Business School), José Santos (INSEAD), Günter Stahl (Vienna University of Economics and Business), and Dennis Tourish (Royal Holloway University of London and Leadership). Finally, my thanks to the two professors who served as mentors in my training as a historian: Richard Kirkendall and David Thelen. viii