David Ben-Gurion’s leadership as a “two-way interaction process”

Abstract

The persona, influence, and modi operandi of Israel’s first PM, David Ben-Gurion, have been central in studies on the history of Israel. Relatively few studies, however, focus on the patterns of Ben-Gurion’s leadership in an attempt to decode his personality and the sources of his influence. This article seeks a better understanding about one pattern in Ben-Gurion’s leadership—his communication with “the public” or, to be more precise, with his followers. Below, using Ben-Gurion as a case study, a model is proposed that applies current leadership theories that view the leadership phenomenon as “a relationship that is jointly produced by leaders and followers.” The article proposes an analysis of Ben-Gurion’s leadership through the conceptualization of leader–follower interrelations, following Sheer’s conceptualization, as a “two-way interaction process [by which] the leader and the member co-contribute to the leadership process”.