Performing Leadership: “is”, “as”, Enactment, Narrative and Audience

Abstract

The first two chapters in this section problematised the notion of leadership, drawing on ideas from disciplines outside of psychology which have tended to be less common within the mainstream leadership literature. We have suggested that leadership theory over the past hundred years has been predominantly a modernist project. Consequently, leadership research has tended to be dominated by research traditions which have sought to uncover “essential” truths about the nature of leadership. This has also influenced the ways that mainstream leadership theory, practice and development have thought about the nature of leadership, follower-ship and notions of the self. Thus far, our argument has been that these established approaches are no longer (if they ever were) sufficient in informing how we might best conceptualise leadership and thus inform the practice of leadership and leadership development so that it is as useful as possible to individuals, groups and organisations.