ABSTRACT
The exercise of leadership in most contexts involves scope for decision making and influential action, either directly or indirectly through the initiation of acts and events by others. What those in leadership positions decide and do, when mediated and extended by a large organisational context, can also have extensive consequences for others. That consequences may be extensive, however, is not just a matter of the size of an organisation or the way and extent to which the behaviour of its members has been influenced. It is also a question of the extent to which networks of coordinated activity typical of organisational behaviour shape the framework, or set of options, in which others in the wider community can act: what realistic choices they actually have, and know about, and desire to choose.
