Exploring Leadership

Are leaders born or made? Does each society get the leaders it deserves? How--and why--is leadership "rhetoric" different from leadership in reality?

Leadership is one of the most talked about yet least understood concepts in current business and society. This book explores how theoretical models and views of leadership have evolved over time, how leadership should be discussed from individual, organizational, and societal perspectives, and the perennial dilemmas and emerging perspectives of leadership. Positioning its discussion within a multidisciplinary framework that touches on management, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, history, literature, and politics, this book examines and critiques the common assumptions that inform the ways in which leaders and leadership is recognized, rewarded, and developed. It provides a valuable and thought-provoking overview for students and academics interested in leadership and management, practicing leaders, leadership development consultants, and policy makers.

Richard Bolden's current research interests include distributed/shared leadership, leadership in higher education, cross-cultural leadership, and the relationship between leadership development and performance management. Teaching responsibilities include the Exeter MBA, CPD award, BA in Management and Leadership, and MA in Leadership Studies. Prior to joining CLS he was a research psychologist at the Institute for Work Psychology, University of Sheffield. He has an extensive publication history, including numerous journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, and research reports.

Jonathan Gosling trained as an anthropologist before working for several years as a mediator in neighbourhood conflicts in London. After taking a mid-career MBA, he moved into management education at Lancaster University, where he directed the MBA and other executive programmes, and co-founded, with Henry Mintzberg, a new approach to management education: the International Masters in Practising Management. In 2003 Jonathan joined the University of Exeter as Director of the Centre for Leadership Studies and Professor of Leadership Studies. He has published articles in numerous key management and leadership journals, and several books, including: Nelson's Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Commander (2005, Brealey), Leadership: the Key Concepts (2007, Routledge), and John Adair: Fundamentals of Leadership (2007, Palgrave Macmillan). Jonathan advises companies, international agencies, and government departments on their leadership-related issues.

Beverley Hawkins has been a lecturer at the Centre for Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter Business School since January 2009. She has published work on recruitment and selection practices, leadership and corporate culture, resistance to leadership and teamworking practices.

Scott Taylor has worked as a senior lecturer in the Centre for Leadership Studies at University of Exeter Business School since 2008. Before this, he lectured and researched at Manchester Metropolitan, Open, Birmingham, and Essex universities, where he was involved in under- and postgraduate education. Scott's interest in leading and being led centres on practical and theoretical overlaps with religious and spiritual beliefs. He is currently writing about the development of 'spiritual leadership' from two perspectives: first, as a set of managerial practices that assume US society is exceptional, and second, as a means of representing standard products as more meaningful to employees or consumers.