Critical Perspectives on Leadership: The Language of Corporate Power (Routledge Studies in Leadership Research)

Within contemporary culture, 'leadership' is seen in ways that appeal to celebrated societal values and norms. As a result, it is becoming difficult to use the language of leadership without at the same time assuming its essentially positive, intrinsically affirmative nature. Within organizations, routinely referring to bosses as 'leaders' has, therefore, become both a symptom and a cause of a deep, largely unexamined new conceptual architecture. This architecture underpins how we think about authority and power at work. Capitalism, and its turbo-charged offspring neo-liberalism, have effectively captured 'leader' and 'leadership' to serve their own purposes. In other words, organizational leadership today is so often a particular kind of insidious conservativism dressed up in radical adjectives. This book makes visible the work that the language of leadership does in perpetuating fictions that are useful for bosses of work organizations. We do this so that we - and anyone who shares similar discomforts - can make a start in unravelling the fiction. We contend that even if our views are contrary to the vast and powerful leadership industry, our basic arguments rest on things that are plain and evident for all to see. Critical Perspectives on Leadership: The Language of Corporate Power will be key reading for students, academics and practitioners in the disciplines of Leadership, Organizational Studies, Critical Management Studies, Sociology and the related disciplines. Read more... Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Preface 1. Introducing the Language of Leadership The Language of Leadership Structure of the Book PART I: Against 'Leadership' 2. Using the Language of Leadership Eleven Leaders Out There Leather-Patch-Elbowed Leaders? When Is a Leader Not a Leader? Leaders as Elites Today's Senior Leadership Team Yesterday's Senior Management Team 3. Measuring the Language of Leadership New Leaders? Same Old Managers? 4. Polishing Our Chains Depoliticizing the Workplace TGI FridaysThe Dominant Image of the Leader The Camouflage of 'Leadership' 5. Building Santa's Workshop Let's Get Cynical The Pro-Elite, Cultural Associations of 'Leadership' The Value of 'Management' A Sketch of the Employment Relationship Diagnosing, Classifying and Commodifying 'Leadership' Unmasking Corporate Power Leadership and the Rise of Neo-liberalism Summary of Part I PART II: 'Leadership' as Rhetoric 6. Labels Matter Language Works Us 'Leadership' as Science? The Linguistic Turn Rhetoric and the 'New Rhetoric' Discourse Challenging the Language of Leadership 7. Performing LeadershipThe Virtue of Cynicism Language and Corporate Power The Gloomy Vision of Economics Discursive Practice Performativity PART III: The Seductions of 'Leadership' 8. The Attractions of Being (Called) a 'Leader' The Blanket Positivity of Leadership The Leader as the One in Front World Leaders: The Leader as Strategist Leadership as New-Age Inspiration: Hippie Leaders Conjuring Up the Leader 9. A Boost to the Executive Ego Organizational Leaders and Greatness Me-dership Followers of the World Unite PART IV: Resistance 10. What is to be Done? Salvaging Something Positive From Leadership?Critical Leadership Studies Collective Leadership Women's Leadership Positive Cynicism Offering Answers? 11. Concluding Thoughts: Leadership as a Fig Leaf? Entrepreneurship and the Language of Corporate Power Future Prospects For the Language of Leadership Leadership as a Fig Leaf 12. Further Reading Part I: Against 'Leadership' Part II: 'Leadership' as Rhetoric Part III: The Seductions of 'Leadership' Part IV: Resistance Further Research Questions References Index Within contemporary culture, 'leadership' is seen in ways that appeal to celebrated societal values and norms. As a result, it is becoming difficult to use the language of leadership without at the same time assuming its essentially positive, intrinsically affirmative nature. Within organisations, routinely referring to bosses as 'leaders' has, therefore, become both a symptom and a cause of a deep, largely unexamined new conceptual architecture. This architecture underpins how we think about authority and power at work. Capitalism, and its turbo-charged offspring neo-liberalism, have effectively captured 'leader' and 'leadership' to serve their own purposes