Abstract
This chapter reflects on the way images of heroic leaders from popular culture can be used within organisations. I link my ethnographic data to some extracts from Ian Fleming’s ‘007’ novels to suggest why Bond’s heroic style of action-focused leadership acts as a template for organisational heroics. I also highlight the implications of Miss Moneypenny’s role as the heroic leader’s ‘trusty sidekick’ (Maccoby, 2000). I suggest that figures from popular culture, like Bond and Moneypenny, can act as ‘leadership silhouettes’, resurrecting heroic models of leadership within post-heroic workplace structures.
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© 2013 Jonathan Gosling & Peter Villiers
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Hawkins, B. (2013). The Silhouette of Leadership: James Bond and Miss Moneypenny. In: Fictional Leaders. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137272751_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137272751_9
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