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Blackboxing leadership: Methodological practices leading to manager-centrism

Authors :
Johan Alvehus
Magnus Larsson
Source :
Leadership. 19:85-97
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
SAGE Publications, 2022.

Abstract

The scholarly literature on leadership has long been characterized by leader-centrism, in the sense of a focus on individual leaders, their characteristics and actions. This tendency has been strongly criticized, not least by scholars with a critical perspective. However, we still see a strong emphasis on leaders and managers in empirical studies of leadership. In this article, we suggest that this tendency is at least in part a consequence of common methodological blackboxing practices within leadership studies. We identify two such blackboxing practices: delegation, where identification of the core phenomenon is left to informants, and proxying, when more easily defined phenomena are taken to stand for leadership. We suggest that a consequence of such practices is an unintended focus on managers, and attempts to avoid leader-centrism that rely on these blackboxing practices therefore paradoxically might result in manager-centrism.

Details

ISSN :
17427169 and 17427150
Volume :
19
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Leadership
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........8735cbc6bd6145d7945e7226c6afcedb
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1177/17427150221132398