Collinson, David and Tourish, Dennis (2015) Teaching leadership critically : new directions for leadership pedagogy. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 14 (4). pp. 576-594. ISSN 1537-260X
Teaching_Leadership_Critically_accepted_version_.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (480kB)
Abstract
Conventional approaches to teaching leadership in business schools have over relied on transformational models that stress the role of charismatic individuals, usually white men, in setting compelling visions to which all organizational actors are expected to subscribe. Such approaches pay insufficient attention to the dynamics of power, the influence of context and the significance of follower dissent and resistance. This article examines the pedagogical potential of Critical Leadership Studies: an emergent, alternative paradigm which questions deep seated assumptions that power and agency should be vested in the hands of a few leaders, and explores the dysfunctional consequences of such power dynamics for individuals, organizations and societies. It also recognises that follower compliance and conformity, as well as resistance and dissent, are important features of leadership dynamics. Informed by our own experience of trying to teach leadership more critically, the essay highlights a number of guiding principles that, we argue, have the potential to reshape and enrich leadership pedagogies in business schools.