ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the way in which general frameworks of law help to structure management practice and create opportunities to demonstrate leadership. Legislation does not make decisions: it simply sets the parameters and provides the framework within which leaders, managers and practitioners make decisions. Laws operate at a high level of abstraction but, in some ways, they are intrinsically linked to ideas about leadership – they provide a framework of rules, codes and conceptual structures that guide social, personal and institutional action. Managers may also need to be familiar with aspects of civil law concerning slander or defamation, for example, and they must remain mindful of the need to express themselves more carefully in their professional capacities than they might on a strictly personal basis. The procedures for deciding how services are provided, who is entitled to them and how they are delivered often involve extensive consultation.
