ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the growing policy focus on management and leadership and, in particular, the construction of leadership as a key tool for change, by mapping and analysing the leadership paradigms being used in health and social care. It explores some of the outcomes of this construction – for instance how leadership for change is interpreted and enacted in the public service domain – by looking at specific examples in community care services. The chapter suggests that how leadership might be developed to have more local organisational impact and identify expertise and experience in the theory and practice of organisational development as a central component of the 'repertoire' of leaders in healthcare. Returning from World War II, some psychologists and social scientists brought back a renewed energy and determination to understand the impact of such events, including the ways in which they affected leadership behaviours.
