Is leadership a visible phenomenon? On the (im)possibility of studying leadership Online publication date: Tue, 24-Sep-2013
by Sverre Spoelstra
International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy (IJMCP), Vol. 7, No. 3/4, 2013
Abstract: This paper draws on Jean-Luc Marion's notion of non-objective phenomena to discuss the difficulty of studying leadership. Marion conceptualises non-objective phenomena as phenomena that cannot be captured by scientific methods. Attempts to do so result in a poor understanding of the phenomenon as it gives itself. Put differently: non-objective phenomena remain invisible to the gaze of the researcher. The paper shows how leadership scholars are indecisive about the question of whether leadership is to be understood as an objective or as a non-objective phenomenon. Or more precisely they tend to understand leadership as a non-objective phenomenon, but study leadership as if it were objective. This mismatch, the paper suggests, explains why leadership studies tends to oscillate between objectivist science and (pseudo) religious image making and why it struggles to find a foothold in either sphere. In light of this problem, the paper suggests 'leadership image studies' as a possible way forward.
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