ABSTRACT
But the move away from leaders and leadership has not lasted. Trust in political institutions has plummeted throughout the Western world as people felt that governments were unable to cope with the big challenges of the era – globalization, migration, multiculturalism, crime – or to maintain adequate levels of what people had come to regard as elementary public service delivery – education, health, and welfare. The reaction: an unprecedented call for more, better, stronger, courageous, visionary, ‘leadership’. A similar dynamic occurred in the business sector, where financial collapses, ethical fiascos, globalization of trade, and relentless technological innovation have provided both a frame-breaking and a game-changing impetus to rethink traditional models of corporate governance and strategy. Moreover, not-for-profit organizations, churches, and hitherto ‘untouchable’ bulwarks of professional authority in sectors such as health care, higher education, and accountancy have all been confronted with the deinstitutionalization of their status quos in a world where transparency, accountability, and performativity have become the dominant makers and breakers of institutional fates.
