Never let an academic crisis go to waste: Leadership Studies in the wake of journal retractions

Summary, in English

In 2014, leadership studies saw the retraction of a number of journal articles written by prominent researchers who are closely associated with popular concepts such as transformational leadership, authentic leadership, ethical leadership and spiritual leadership. In response, The Leadership Quarterly published a lengthy editorial that presented these retractions as a sign of health in a mature scientific field. For the editors of The Leadership Quarterly, there is no crisis in leadership studies. In this paper, we suggest that the editorial is a missed opportunity to reflect on positivist leadership studies. In our view, leadership ought to be in crisis because this would stimulate the community to question its guiding assumptions and reconsider its methods and objectives. We therefore hope to open up a critical discussion about the means and ends of mainstream leadership studies – not least of all its scientific pretensions.

• Author: Sverre Spoelstra; Nick Butler; Helen Delaney
• Department/s: Department of Business Administration
• Publishing year: 2016-09
• Language: English
• Pages: 383-397
• Publication/Series: Leadership
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 4
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1742715016658215
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Topic: Business Administration
• Keywords: Leadership studies; journal retractions; crisis; positivism; image of science; philosophy of science
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1742-7169