This concise textbook seeks to unpack the real-life complexities of leadership by examining the theories and models surrounding it and encouraging self-analysis in the individual’s own contexts. The book: Provides an outline of the various perspectives of leadership theory; Develops a critical and robust framework for considering existing leadership theory and consequently applying leadership practice across the organization; Identifies important individual characteristics likely to enhance leadership practice in the workplace; Considers a framework for analyzing leadership performance and methods and practicalities for application. Reflexive Leadership in Context provides a practical and concise introduction for executive education students currently studying for MSc/MBA apprenticeship programs, as well as supplementary reading for postgraduate students studying modules within leadership and management.

Making a case for a reflexive approach to leadership, the authors draw upon decades of carrying out in-depth studies of professionals trying to "do" leadership. Through interviews with managers and their subordinates, getting a good understanding of organizational context, and critically interpreting their observations considering both leadership theories and a wealth of other perspectives, their celebration of reflexivity is used to question dominant leadership thinking. Considering and challenging various departures from lines of reasoning results in a book that draws upon rich empirical material and which has a number of new, provocative, critical and constructive ideas that help to develop sharper and more thoughtful thinking and practice - both in academic and practical contexts. Suitable for leadership and organisation courses at upper-level undergraduate and upwards (including MBA-classes and Executive Education) and a thought provoking read for practitioners and management development professionals interested in leadership thought.

Non-profits are big business. As the sector expands to embrace new issues, there is increased pressure for accountability, relevancy, and efficiency. Practitioners are expected to be experts in a variety of fields. In Five Good Ideas, forty professionals from successful non-profits large and small offer information, strategies for action, and management solutions that are easy to implement and will improve how organizations function. Alan Broadbent is the chair of Avana Capital, Tides Canada Foundation, and Maytree, and is the author of Urban Nation. Ratna Omidvar is the president of Maytree and is The Globe and Mail's 2010 Nation Builder of the Decade for Citizenship.

Making a case for a reflexive approach to leadership, the authors draw upon decades of carrying out in-depth studies of professionals trying to "do" leadership. Through interviews with managers and their subordinates, getting a good understanding of organizational context, and critically interpreting their observations considering both leadership theories and a wealth of other perspectives, their celebration of reflexivity is used to question dominant leadership thinking. Considering and challenging various departures from lines of reasoning results in a book that draws upon rich empirical material and which has a number of new, provocative, critical and constructive ideas that help to develop sharper and more thoughtful thinking and practice - both in academic and practical contexts. Suitable for leadership and organisation courses at upper-level undergraduate and upwards (including MBA-classes and Executive Education) and a thought provoking read for practitioners and management development professionals interested in leadership thought.

Reflexive Narrative is latest addition to the Qualitative Research Methods series. Author Christopher Johns describes this unique qualitative method and its developmental approach to research to enable researchers’ self-realization, however that might be expressed.

As the leadership field continues to evolve, there are many reasons to be optimistic about the various theoretical and empirical contributions in better understanding leadership from a scholarly and scientific perspective. The Oxford Handbook of Leadership and Organizations brings together a collection of comprehensive, state-of-the-science reviews and perspectives on the most pressing historical and contemporary leadership issues - with a particular focus on theory and research - and looks to the future of the field. It provides a broad picture of the leadership field as well as detailed reviews and perspectives within the respective areas. Each chapter, authored by leading international authorities in the various leadership sub-disciplines, explores the history and background of leadership in organizations, examines important research issues in leadership from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives, and forges new directions in leadership research, practice, and education.

Explores the experience of being a new leader in an infant-family program. This book describes how to use self-awareness, observation, and flexible responses to manage stress and increase on-the-job effectiveness. Leadership issues, including individualizing one's relationships with staff members and encouraging collegial work, are also discussed.

This book develops a new paradigm in the field of leadership studies, referred to as the "leadership-as-practice" (L-A-P) movement. Its essence is its conception of leadership as occurring as a practice rather than residing in the traits or behaviours of particular individuals. A practice is a coordinative effort among participants who choose through their own rules to achieve a distinctive outcome. It also tends to encompass routines as well as problem-solving or coping skills, often tacit, that are shared by a community. Accordingly, leadership-as-practice is less about what one person thinks or does and more about what people may accomplish together. It is thus concerned with how leadership emerges and unfolds through day-to-day experience. The social and material contingencies impacting the leadership constellation – the people who are effecting leadership at any given time – do not reside outside of leadership but are very much embedded within it. To find leadership, then, we must look to the practice within which it is occurring. The leadership-as-practice approach resonates with a number of closely related traditions, such as collective, shared, distributed, and relational leadership, that converge on leadership processes. These approaches share a line of inquiry that acknowledges leadership as a social phenomenon. The new focus opens up a plethora of research opportunities encouraging the study of social processes beyond influence, such as intersubjective agency, shared sense-making, dialogue, and co-construction of responsibilities.

Developing Relational Leadership offers the scholar, the practitioner, and most importantly, the scholar-practitioner an exuberance of riches. The authors provide a deep foray into the worlds of systemic, cybernetic and constructionist ideas, while bringing those ideas to the worlds of leadership and organizational change and practice. The authors share cases that present tools for exploring these ideas and practices. While the authors position the two halves of this volume as ¿tools for thinking¿ and ¿tools for action,¿ marking this as a book about both theory and practice, the reader experiences ¿tools for thinking about the relationship between thinking and action¿ ¿ and this connection is quite a treat. Relationship and context are continually in the foreground. Developing Relational Leadership looks at the importance of the questions that we ask ¿ and what our questions do for systemic inquiry and praxis. The focus on diverse ways of asking powerful questions is worth the read itself. This book is for those who are interested in systems theory, cybernetics, constructionism, and communication theory, as well as those interested in leadership, coaching, and organization development. The authors, true to their reliance on positioning ourselves in a multitude of roles, invite us to converse with an ecology of ideas, and open space for a profound reflective practice. A joyful read that will change how systems practitioners think and systems theoreticians act.

In view of the rising importance and prevalence of network-based collaboration, this book aims to meet the need for more theory in this area. Theoretically conceptualizing and empirically describing the practice of reflexive leadership in inter-organisational networks, it explores how member organisations approach reflexive leadership and the associated challenges. Examining these questions from wider leadership theory perspectives as well as a tighter focus upon inter-organizational networks, the author specifically explores how reflexive leadership can be sustained and how social and political contexts may obstruct or support its use, acceptance and practice. Based on in-depth qualitative empirical fieldwork in the Swiss healthcare sector, the book offers a novel practice-theoretical model for use in inter-organizational networks.