The aim of this course is to investigate leadership as an everyday phenomenon, as one may argue that leadership research has somewhat distanced itself from the reality that many leaders and employees find themselves operating in. This has contributed to an increasing gap between theory and practice, and there is thus a need to investigate leadership as a ‘living experience’, rather than as a reported experience reproduced by questionnaires and interviews.

In leadership studies there are strong traditions we can refer to as normative or idealistic rationalism, i.e. traditions that seek to identify the optimal actions leaders can choose and implement in given contexts in order to achieve results. Broadly speaking, these traditions share a set of rationalistic assumptions about human behaviour and nature and in some sense the predictability of the organisational environment, in as much as they emphasise risk at the expense of fundamental uncertainty. Empirical, and often positivistic, work in these traditions tends to be deductive, seeking to make sense of and explain managerial choices/organisational decision making and gauge the results of these relative to (often deductively given) best practices.

Practice-and critical approaches on leadership, on the other hand, start out from assumptions based on cognitive/social psychology and sociology/communication, focusing on biases and rules of thumb, at the expense of heroic assumptions about human rationality, whilst at the same time emphasising radical uncertainty as the most frequent condition under which managerial and organisational work is done. Using such perspectives hence contributes with important corrections in terms of theory development, empirical findings and research methodologies in leadership studies.

Firstly, practical and critical traditions attach more importance to contexts and frameworks, and scholars attempt to understand how contextual boundaries, constraints, and implications influence the work of leadership. Hence, research includes more variables in the leadership equation than conventional approaches.

Secondly, researchers are more interested in how leadership is shaped by everyday events, which means that they are interested in leadership actions per se and how people, either appointed leaders or others, do leadership work, including how they communicate, solve tasks, relate to people, in short, master everyday challenges. Researchers thus usually pay less attention to the appointed leader since they are investigating a phenomenon, not a population.

Thirdly, realities within organisations play a bigger role in leadership studies. Researchers within practical- and critical traditions tend to observe daily actions and consider how leaders and groups interact, and how they together constitute leadership.

Fourthly, in general, researchers do not seek universal truths or normative recipes for leadership; instead, they suggest reflective frameworks that may constitute organisational and leadership practice.

The course will cover the following topics:

Ontological and epistemological perspectives relevant for leadership research.
Societal and contextual issues prompting critical- and practice-oriented perspectives.
The practice- and critical perspective turn in contemporary theory in general, and leadership studies, in particular.
The field of leadership research: major research directions, research problems, methodological weaknesses and challenges.
Research on managerial work.
Critical management studies.
Social constructionist and communicative approaches to leadership.
Research on leadership as practice and managerial practice.
Application of research to practical problems: perspectives, findings, and challenges.
Researching leadership premised on critical- and practice-based perspectives: research problems, methods, and contributions.

Subject description PCL9206

Practical and Critical Perspectives on Leadership

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