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Abstract
Purpose - There have again been increasing calls for management educators to strengthen the development of leadership in their programmes. However, it is unclear as to how such calls can be best answered. One way forward may be to rethink our conceptualisation of leadership. This paper seeks to address this issue.
Design/methodology/approach - Dominant theories of leadership may offer limited help to management educators. The dominant conceptualisation of leadership is questioned using empirical evidence from recent studies and interviews undertaken by the authors which examined managers' understandings of leadership.
Findings - This article suggests that mainstream leadership theories are framed by systems-control thinking and highlights a number of issues in respect of teaching leadership. Proposes that a process-relational framing of leadership may be a more useful way to think about leadership.
Research limitations/implications - Whilst the interview data drawn upon is exploratory and therefore cannot be taken as conclusive, we hope to stimulate a wider rethinking of leadership than is currently present.
Practical implications - Tentative suggestions are presented for responding to calls to improve the teaching of leadership.
Originality/value - The paper emphasises a process-relational understanding of leadership and may be seen to offer practical help to management educators concerned with the teaching of leadership.
Keywords Leadership, Management education, Teaching
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Over recent years there have been increasing demands for management educators to pay more attention to leadership development in their programmes. The CEML (2002) report for example, questions whether currently MBA programmes provide effective preparation for leadership, and recommends that business schools need to strengthen the application of knowledge and the development of practical leadership skills within the MBA. The report suggests that despite the growth in management education over the past decade, there are still shortages in the quality and quantity of people with leadership abilities and thus echoes concerns raised by reports in the late-1980s (Constable and McCormick, 1987; Porter and McKibbin, 1988). This would seem to suggest that business schools have long struggled with the issue of "teaching leadership". Thus the challenge once again for those responsible for developing programmes is to find ways of attending to the issue of leadership.
It is suggested here that one way to tackle this thorny issue of...