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I Don't Need Leadership: An Exploration of the Societal Discourse of Leadership
Author(s) -
McLaren Patricia Genoe
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of leadership studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.219
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1935-262X
pISSN - 1935-2611
DOI - 10.1002/jls.21288
Subject(s) - servant leadership , leadership studies , shared leadership , transformational leadership , transactional leadership , leadership , leadership style , sociology , public relations , neuroleadership , discourse analysis , educational leadership , political science , pedagogy , linguistics , philosophy
Even with a myriad of definitions of leadership, we still know little about the discourse of leadership in which those of us without formal leadership education and development are embedded. Through a discourse analysis of interviews with a broad cross‐section of 12 “followers,” the current study begins exploring the idea of a societal discourse of leadership and how that discourse complements and conflicts with the academic and workplace discourses. Analysis shows that although individuals define leadership in a similar fashion to the academic discourse, they identify heroic figures as leaders, and they neither look for, nor feel they need, leadership in their own lives.