
Mats Alvesson
Professor

Leadership : Convergence and Divergence in Leadership Relations
Author
Summary, in English
The article argues for theorizing and studying the significance of how so-called leaders and followers converge or diverge in their views and understandings of the leadership/followership relations they may be part of. Divergence or misfits may be common yet missed by the researcher who takes only one party’s view of leadership into account and/or assumes that people involved define the relationship in a similar way. The article identifies and illustrates four typical forms of shared/diverse meanings regarding leadership: high-alignment leadership (shared meanings), value misfit (diverse assessment), construction misfit (different views of what goes on), and multiple breakdowns (high level of confusion of what goes on and how to assess it). Given variations in views of leadership, this article makes a case for considering “divergent relationalities”—in some opposition to common ideas about “smooth” leadership/followership relations based on convergent meanings.
Department/s
- Department of Business Administration
Publishing year
2019
Language
English
Pages
319-334
Publication/Series
Journal of Management Inquiry
Volume
28
Issue
3
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Topic
- Business Administration
Keywords
- leadership
- power and politics
- qualitative research
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1056-4926