ABSTRACT
Critical approaches to leadership studies have sought to challenge the normative position of leadership as residing solely within the formal leader and have gone as far as to undermine the traditionally held assumption of leadership as a "real" phenomenon.
The book offers a critical account of the nature of leadership and management in modern organizations. Specifically it examines the forces that affect the influence relationships between leaders and followers in public sector organizational settings and thus, how these relationships inform social influence processes. Although the book focuses on the case of a public sector organization in the UK, the findings are placed in the context of both leadership theory and research across the globe and the dissemination of 'new public management' worldwide.
By acknowledging the criticisms concerning the weaknesses of conventional or mainstream leadership study and through the adoption of a critical perspective, Critical Leadership provides a deep and rich interpretation of the empirical material on leadership, thus making an outstanding contribution to the current literature.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |5 pages
Introduction
part |74 pages
Literature, context, methodology and design
chapter |31 pages
Leadership studies
chapter |20 pages
The public sector in context
chapter |21 pages
Methodological considerations
part |77 pages
Field research
chapter |3 pages
Introduction to Chapters 5–10
chapter |12 pages
The challenge to leadership and the dynamic of ambiguity
chapter |11 pages
The limitations to leadership and the dynamic of the environment
chapter |12 pages
The balance within leadership and the dynamic of symbiosis
chapter |10 pages
The negotiation of leadership and the dynamic of politics
chapter |13 pages
The agency of followers and the dynamic of game playing
part |32 pages
Discussion and conclusions