ABSTRACT

The Routledge Critical Companion to Leadership Studies offers a rich and insightful overview of critical leadership studies for students, teachers, researchers, and practitioners. The volume draws together 35 chapters from 56 authors who represent the vibrant diversity of the critical leadership community. It includes chapters from emerging and preeminent scholars who share an interest in directing leadership theorizing, development and practice toward the aims of liberation, justice, and equity.

The Companion is organized into six themes: (1) philosophical perspectives on leadership; (2) processes, practices, and power dynamics in leadership; (3) diversity and leadership; (4) leadership education and development; (5) lessons from the dark side of leadership; and (6) reimagining leadership and leadership studies.

The book has been curated to serve as a "go to" resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students, academic staff, and researchers seeking to understand the current state of play on a given topic, as well as inspiration for how they might contribute to its development. Each chapter provides a comprehensive yet succinct review of contemporary literature and offers the reader avenues for future research. Leadership practitioners will also find provocative ideas among these pages to help them interrogate and transform the ways they lead.

part Theme 1|49 pages

Philosophical perspectives on leadership

part Theme 2|107 pages

Process, practice(s) and power dynamics in leadership

chapter 7|11 pages

Collaborative leadership

A processual approach

chapter 8|13 pages

The Skein of language that contains us

Narrative holding environments as leadership

chapter 11|13 pages

Community leadership and power

chapter 13|12 pages

Leadership-as-practice

Appreciation, critique, and future directions

part Theme 3|51 pages

Diversity and leadership

chapter 14|12 pages

The legitimacy trap for women leaders

Why leadership legitimacy is unstable for women

chapter 15|13 pages

Decolonial perspectives of activism and climate justice in Latin America

Resisting, re-centering, and redefining leadership from the margins

chapter 16|12 pages

The art of creative brokering

Leadership in the Chinese punk scene

chapter 17|12 pages

Navigating gender and religion in leadership

Identity construction of women leaders in Islamic contexts

part Theme 4|69 pages

Leadership education and development

chapter 18|14 pages

From container to concerns

On the criticality of the communicative constitution of leadership development research

chapter 20|14 pages

Mapping the leadership industries

Leadership coaching and leadership assessment

chapter 21|12 pages

Not becoming a leader

chapter 22|14 pages

Teaching leadership critically

A metamodern remix

part Theme 5|106 pages

Lessons from the dark side of leadership

chapter 23|13 pages

The gift of populism

chapter 24|14 pages

The allure of strongman leaders

chapter 25|12 pages

Burning love

The incendiary psychology of Trumpism

chapter 26|8 pages

The organization of ideological discourse in times of unexpected crisis

Explaining how COVID-19 is exploited by populist leaders

chapter 27|17 pages

The canary in the coalmine

Using linguistic markers to identify the early warning signs of hubristic leader behaviors

part Theme 6|80 pages

Reimagining leadership

chapter 32|12 pages

Making a difference

Opportunities and challenges for Critical Leadership Studies

chapter 34|14 pages

Leadership and climate change

chapter 35|14 pages

Getting rid of the L-word

Are our best aspirations for “leadership” not leadership at all?