Bringing Leadership Back to Managers: How Leadership Theories can Better Respond to Managers' Issues

Abstract

A long lineage of research marks a clear separation between the concept of “leader” and “manager”. This literature frames managers as strategic administrators, and leaders as inspirational influencers. It informs how leadership and management are taught in business schools, at MBAs and at executive development programs through practitioner and academic publications exploring “How managers become leaders” or “When managers become leaders”. Yet, managers are key tassels in the unfolding processes of leadership in organizations, they face complex leadership and followership challenges on a daily basis. in modern organizations, where complexity is so high, change a constant, and relationships so central, we ask ourselves: how can a manager be effective at influencing, implementing, persuading, without also being a good leader? Unsurprisingly, some scholars are starting to call out this division as obsolete, and even “questionable”. Instead, they call for leadership theories that can better respond to the challenges managers face in their complex day-to-day activities, bridging and buffering different, even contradictory, demands from their upper and lower partners in organizations (e.g. their own bosses, and their direct reports). This panel will explore leadership by considering managers as