posted on 2013-09-20, 14:25authored byMichaela Driver
The study uses a psychoanalytic framework to explore how leadership identities are constructed. It advances the idea that leadership identities are imaginary constructions that invariable fail, reiterating a lack of being. Empirical material consisting of interviews with 15 leaders is used to explore the productive role this lack plays. The study suggests that leadership identities are always already subverted by unconscious desire and therefore less powerful than we might think with regard to imposing structures on others, but also much more powerful than we might think as liberating struggles with leaders’ imaginary selves.
History
Citation
Organization Studies, 2013, 34 (3), pp. 407-422
Author affiliation
/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE/School of Management