Getting rid of the L-word : Are our best aspirations for ‘leadership’ not leadership at all?

Iszatt-White, Marian (2024) Getting rid of the L-word : Are our best aspirations for ‘leadership’ not leadership at all? In: Routledge Companion to Critical Leadership Studies :. Routledge, London. ISBN 9781032425153

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Abstract

This chapter critiques the current state of play in leadership scholarship and asks what purpose leadership serves in addressing the ‘grand challenges’ we currently face. It goes on to suggest stewardship as a potentially useful replacement for the leadership construct, with all its capitalist and cultural baggage. It questions whether Enlightenment thinking – including leadership’s harnessing of the human-nature dualism to claim control over resources and production capabilities in the name of shareholders - is a sound basis for solving these grand challenges. Through an exploration of the meaning of ‘stewardship’ across different domains, and a consideration of the relational ontologies of indigenous cultures, the chapter considers whether ‘stewardship’ could offer a better signifier for our future aspirations of ‘leadership’ than leadership itself. It may also offer a resonant narrative for practitioner leadership aspirations.