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Leadership as Phenomenon: Reassessing the Philosophical Ground of Leadership Studies

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Abstract

The purpose of this article is to contribute to a more robust theory of leadership that shifts the frame of reference from leadership as exclusively facilitated through a single inspired leader to one that includes the view of leadership as an emergent and complex social phenomenon. The article begins with a review of the leader-centric approaches that dominated much of twentieth century leadership studies then moves on to present contemporary critiques of leader-centric approaches leading to an alternative perspective of leadership as an emergent and complex social phenomenon. Viewing leadership as an emergent and complex social phenomenon changes our attitude regarding the roles that leaders and others play in the creation of leadership. A central theme of this article is the impact that the concept of emergence has on leadership theory. In response to this changing attitude, the article then moves to return to and reassess the ontological, epistemological and ethical grounds of leadership and concludes that there is an underlying philosophy that supports viewing leadership as an emergent social phenomenon and further suggests that recent work in virtue epistemology along with Calvin Schrag’s theory of communicative praxis and transversal rationality, can facilitate a better understanding of leadership as an emergent social phenomenon.

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Notes

  1. Michela Betta describes leader-centric as follows: “Leader-centric research is a compact research cluster in which individual agents (leaders) are perceived to play a major role in shaping the future of organisations and in executing complex tasks based on their skills. This is understandable because the individual is the bearer of experience (Dewey 1922: 292). The question, however, is whether this provides sufficient justification to claim that some people have extraordinary abilities and skills that justify their request for special status” (Betta 2017, 5–6).

  2. Refer to French and Raven’s Bases of Social Power (French and Raven 1959) in which legitimate power is described as being based on role or assigned authority

  3. New leadership styles or new genre leadership is described as emerging theories that “emphasized symbolic leader behavior; visionary, inspirational messages; emotional feelings; ideological and moral values; individualized attention; and intellectual stimulation” (Bryman 1992) in (Avolio et al. 2009)

  4. Rost is drawing on Burns definition or “real change”. Burns describes real change as “a transformation to a marked degree in the attitudes, norms, institutions, and behaviors that structure our daily lives” and “substantive results” (Burns 1978).

  5. For a more in depth analysis of emergence, both ontological and epistemological see Silberstein and McGeever (1999)

  6. See Aristotle (2002) VI.5–11

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  1. Eberly College of Business and Information Technology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Eberly Complex, Room 304, 664 Pratt Drive, Indiana, PA, 15705-1036, USA

    Kenneth W. Bohl

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Bohl, K.W. Leadership as Phenomenon: Reassessing the Philosophical Ground of Leadership Studies. Philosophy of Management 18, 273–292 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40926-019-00116-x

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