Abstract
Critical leadership studies (CLS) is a recent branch of leadership studies that examines assumptions and issues with mainstream approaches to leadership development and research. This paper reviews three areas of criticism from CLS. First, leadership is a poorly defined and ambiguous concept. Second, mainstream approaches to leadership can be harmful to followers. And third, there is little evidence demonstrating that leadership development is effective. Next, a recent attempt at library leadership development, the Nexus Project, is examined against the three CLS leadership criticisms. And finally, suggestions from the CLS literature are offered on how to pursue organizational improvements outside the context and shadow of leadership.
Highlights
Crises of leadership are the order of the day at the beginning of the twenty-first century: our institutions seem to be in serial meltdown . . . Crises, we have long believed, call forth great leaders.[1 ]
Alvesson and Blom state, “There is an element of reduced room for maneuver involved, and leadership is to a significant degree about constraining actions space, cognition, values, emotions, identity constructions, and so forth.”[45]. The extent to which this is feasible or whether it is morally defensible has been questioned by Sinclair.[46]
Critical leadership studies (CLS) scholars advance the argument that leadership lacks definition, leaving it an ambiguous and contested concept
Summary
While CLS brings many diverse views and approaches under its umbrella, Alvesson and Spicer have identified four broad themes, including: a) Asking whether leadership is always desirable; b) considering the possibility that , in many cases, leadership may be more about creating domination, excess control, and self-enhancing images rather than effective organization and direction of tasks; c) unpacking the blind faith in the powers of leadership; and d) being skeptical about whether leadership is needed (or happening) in many situations.[16] These themes are approached from a variety of critical perspectives that often represent marginalized voices, such as those originating from feminist and queer theory.[17] These voices are essential to CLS because of its attention to the asymmetries of power embedded in mainstream conceptions of leadership.[18]. This paper will review three areas of leadership criticism represented in CLS that have relevance for libraries These areas are: 1) leadership is not always the most effective way to talk and think about organizational life; 2) leadership can be harmful to followers; and 3) there is little evidence that leadership development is effective at growing leaders and improving leadership. It is a good faith effort to expand the conversation about how best to improve libraries
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