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Relational Leadership Theory

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

  • 1997 Accesses

Synonyms

Post-heroic leadership; Socially constructed leadership

Definition

Constructed in relationships, under plural possibilities ranging from inter-individual (entitative) or mutual (processual) constructions.

Introduction

Since the early 1990s, the field of leadership has been experiencing the relational turnand has been moving towards understanding leadership from the perspective of relationships. Relational leadership theory has developed in acknowledgment that individual-centric theorizing does not fully tap into the complexities of leadership work. Rather than focusing on the impact of the individual, relational leadership theory focuses on togetherness and draws attention to the variances between agency and participation, as well as individual and collective. In doing so, many deeply held assumptions about the nature of leadership are challenged. Notions, such as control and independence, are interpreted differently through a relational lens to explain relationships between...

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References

  • Bolden R, Hawkins B, Gosling J, Taylor S (2011) Exploring leadership: individual, organizational & societal perspectives. Oxford University Press, Oxford

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  • Gergen KJ (2009) Relational being: beyond self and community. Oxford University Press, Oxford

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  • Hosking DM (2011) Moving relationality: meditations on relational approach to leadership. In: Bryman A, Collinson D, Grint K, Jackson B, Uhl-Bien M (eds) The SAGE handbook of leadership. Sage, London, pp 455–467

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  • Uhl-Bien M, Ospina SM (2012) Advancing relational leadership research: a dialogue among perspectives. Information Age Publishing, Charlotte

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Organizational Psychology, University of St Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland

    Chrysavgi Sklaveniti

Authors
  1. Chrysavgi Sklaveniti
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chrysavgi Sklaveniti .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

    Ali Farazmand

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Sklaveniti, C. (2016). Relational Leadership Theory. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2196-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2196-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

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