Leadership-as-Practice

<p>This book develops a new paradigm in the field of leadership studies referred to as the leadership-as-practice (L-A-P) movement. Its essence is its conception of leadership as occurring as a practice rather than residing in the traits or behaviours of particular individuals. A practice is a coordinative effort among participants who choose through their own rules to achieve a distinctive outcome. It also tends to encompass routines as well as problem-solving or coping skills often tacit that are shared by a community. Accordingly leadership-as-practice is less about what one person thinks or does and more about what people may accomplish together. It is thus concerned with how leadership emerges and unfolds through day-to-day experience. The social and material contingencies impacting the leadership constellation – the people who are effecting leadership at any given time – do not reside outside of leadership but are very much embedded within it. To find leadership then we must look to the practice within which it is occurring. </p><p>The leadership-as-practice approach resonates with a number of closely related traditions such as collective shared distributed and relational leadership that converge on leadership processes. These approaches share a line of inquiry that acknowledges leadership as a social phenomenon. The new focus opens up a plethora of research opportunities encouraging the study of social processes beyond influence such as intersubjective agency shared sense-making dialogue and co-construction of responsibilities.</p>