ABSTRACT
This is a subjective and interpretive task that requires a pragmatic, exploratory and reflexively critical approach to organizational practice. As a consequence, since structured diagnosis ordinarily draws upon managers' and others' after-the-event rationalizations of their experience, this cannot capture the wiggly reality of what happened in practice. It is this narrative, coupled with the notion of leadership as an elite practice, that underpins established patterns of managerial recognition and reward. However, recognition of the complex reality does mean that the central theme of a manager's contribution would shift from controlling people's practice and performance to one of enabling them to perform with their own sense of purpose, courage and skill. Conventional management wisdom is rooted in the idealization of outstanding, position-based Leadership, coupled with the vast array of prescriptions that claim to deliver the sought-after conditions of order, predictability and control.
