ABSTRACT
In posing questions about the nature of and challenges to leadership from the perspectives of social theory, charisma and critical theory, I have frozen the notion of leadership in an historical vacuum. Giddens’ theory of the duality of structure and agency tends to posit the agent responding to the immediate situation. To be sure, Giddens would understand that the immediate situation reflects the large historical trends and shifts taking place in society. The problem is that the agent rarely understands the historical framework. In the current literature on leadership one rarely sees the larger historical perspective treated. This is to ignore challenges to leadership which only an historical perspective suggests.
