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This thesis explores leadership in a business setting and how it is learned, and the role that a teacher may play in the process of learning. The thesis draws on Stacey's theory of complex responsive processes of relating in organisations to present a view of leadership as skilled participation in an ongoing process of interaction rather than as an individualistic act. The theory is also used to take a view on the process of learning the skills of leadership. At the outset, the ideology of mainstream management, and how it is typically learned, is examined through the study of a narrative account in relation to relevant literature. A number of issues are explored which give rise to the author's dissatisfaction with current approaches. In subsequent sections, a number of typical teaching situations, a leadership workshop and a strategy workshop, are studied in narrative form and explored from the standpoint of Stacey's theory. The argument in the thesis is that while management is concerned with the coherence of action in an organisation, leadership is to do with willing and informed participation which derives from the shared meaning which is made of the situation in which the participants find themselves. What is different about the argument presented is that shared meaning arises, not from the act of an individual, but from the ongoing interaction of all participants. Not all participants in this interaction are the same; some will be more powerful, while some will be more skilful in discerning, making sense and interacting with other participants. To the extent that participants see an individual as skilled in this way, that person will be seen in a leadership role. These skills of leadership, and how they are learned, are explored with particular reference to Foulkes' theory of Group Analysis.

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Upper-echelons theory has been an extremely active stream of research for over two-decades and, as a counterbalance to the population ecology perspective, has provided evidence to support the position that managers influence firm outcomes. Upper-echelons theory posits that, as managers are boundedly rational and selectively perceptive, a behavioural component derived from their idiosyncratic characteristics should be evident in organisation outcomes. While extensive research has found support for these posited relationships, the operationalisation process subsumes the presumed micro psychological processes into a black-box. Adopting a realist perspective, this thesis goes beyond accepting that organisational outcomes are shaped by managers characteristics and explores the underlying generative mechanisms at work. While upper-echelons theory presumes that a process of selective perception explains the black-box processes, in the two-decades since its publication it has received little empirical attention. In this light, the selective perception literature is extensively reviewed, ultimately rejected, and an alternative model developed. Over time, both strategic choice and population ecology theorists have moved from their extreme positions of opposition and a theory of managerial discretion has been proposed to bridge the divide. This thesis builds and extends the concept of managerial discretion as an alternative framework to explain the black-box processes of upper-echelons theory. The theoretical model developed, proposes how, through the process of perceived, enacted, and actual discretion, managers characteristics shape outcomes. The model provides an extensive base for future research and this thesis tests the initial stage, exploring the relationship between managerial characteristics and perceived discretion.

The primary aim of this research is to re-interpret the development of business leadership within a political, economic and socio-historic framework in order to explore a contemporary problem that has arisen with leadership. The problem, identified in Chapter Two is, 'that leadership training, development and education may not be delivering the leadership skills required for the 21st Century'. The primary research objectives were to: • Develop a reflexive Foucaultian analysis of leadership development as a 'body of knowledge' in order to illustrate alternative leadership constructs. • Operationalize the research strategy on a contemporary business leadership issue identified in a social, political and economic context. • Open up a marginalised but inclusive space outside the dominant leadership discourse that would enable researchers, educationalists and practitioners to consider alternative thoughts on leadership, to spark new thought and conversations. The primary premise is to create a marginal space outside the dominant leadership discourse in order to reveal how political, economic and socio-historical influences affect the development of leadership theory and literature. The thesis explores how these influences in turn conceal threads of leadership thought which, when revealed, contribute to an alternative understanding of business leadership in the present day. This research, based on a Foucaultian research strategy informed by reflexive interpretation, initially creates a History of the Present composed of a macro and micro perspective of leadership literature. The macro perspective constructs current leadership literature to demonstrate how the socio-historical influences have developed transformational leadership theory into a paradigm. The micro view is developed from a sample of UK leadership research between 2007 and 2009. The articles are used to deconstruct the concept of leadership within this bounded frame. The resultant 'statements' of leadership from these two views are traced from the present through to their first emergence in the early 1900s. This process reveals a concealed leadership history that is based on the transformational possibilities of the present and engages with reciprocal relationship building. The conclusion draws attention to an alternative research strategy in which to examine the concept of business leadership. The contributions made by this study to the wider business leadership literature are, • To develop and operationalize, through a problem presented in the present a research strategy based on reflexivity and Foucaultian historical analysis, • To open a marginal space in which to view leadership theory development from an alternative perspective • To generate new conversations and spark new thoughts concerning leadership practice in the 21st Century.

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This cross-disciplinary qualitative research identifies the hidden dynamics, mechanisms and structures forming the core process of leadership, employing an equine-herd metaphor to exclude the complexities generated by the workplace environment. To determine the equine metaphor's suitability, the research commenced with a literature review of accepted academic leadership and followership theories for humans and animals. Thereafter, this original research employed a qualitative methodology of twenty-six semi-structured interviews, eliciting peoples' experiences and interpretations of workplace leadership, and in parallel, equine specialists' observations and interpretations of equine leadership. Over forty hours of interviewing, reflects a combined total of over five hundred year's workplace experience and over three hundred years of equestrian experience. Employing a phenomenological approach, these observations and reflections are interpreted through code and theme based template analysis of the interview transcripts. The 'raw' interview tape-recordings are then analysed by identifying notable expressions, emotions and emphasis, to identify underlying stories. These emergent stories and template data are subsequently 're-storied' as two separate narratives for human leadership and equine leadership, providing a vehicle for comparing and contrasting the leadership process interviewees described. The resultant information was viewed through the lens of critical realism, to seek the underlying dynamics, mechanisms and structures driving the leadership:followership process. The contribution to practice is a new understanding of how the leadership process actually works. Furthermore, striking similarities between human and animal leadership processes introduce the possibility of parallel evolution of leadership in equines, humans and many other socially-grouping species. The results also suggest that organisations led by one individual, (appointed outwith their team), followed by an essentially linear subordinate hierarchy is an un-natural leadership process and potentially flawed. Far from leadership being something leaders do to followers, this research suggests that leading is something followers permit and empower leaders to do. Simplified, the process identified in natural leadership is as follows: 1) A confident, experienced socially-dominant individual has a vision or need and decides to take action. 2) They become a leader only when a quorum of other socially-dominant individuals choose to follow them. 3) When the quorum of social dominants start to follow, it triggers consensus focussed decision-making by the remaining team. The process is effectively 'team appointed' leaders being 'primus inter pares' (first amongst equals in the socially dominant group) with the strongest dynamic being the choice to follow not the choice to lead. This dynamic operates within a non-linear social structure, based on a mechanism of dyadic relationships, to form the leadership process that delivers effective leadership outcomes. This research, combined with previous scientific studies also overturns the myth that aggression-based 'alpha-male' dominance drives leadership in nature - in fact it normally represents crisis leadership, or dysfuctional behaviour more typically observed in captivity. It generates dysfunctional behaviours potentially detrimental to team performance - in humans, generating negative business outcomes. This cross-disciplinary research brings together the business and scientific worlds to provide new insights into leadership and, in defining the core process, provides a contextual framework to enhance understanding of existing leadership theories and assist organisations in reviewing and improving their leadership processes.

This thesis explores how I have taken steps to improve my practice of leadership as a Chief Executive within a Third Sector Drug and Alcohol Support Service and to build professional identities for volunteers in the service. I studied how volunteers’ identities changed from that of ‘Volunteer’ to ‘Advisor’ and what I learned about myself as a leader. I noted the value of studying my own reflections as a leader and how change became embedded throughout the organisation as a consequence. As a result of this process, I developed a mnemonic that I consider to encapsulate key aspects of leadership. This is entitled ‘CAVEAT’ and identifies competency, visibility, empowerment and a therapeutic orientation as important qualities of a leader in positions like my own. The study is informed by in-depth focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews, personal reflections, questionnaires and surveys. It provides recommendations for Chief Executives of Third Sector organisations involved in leadership and the professional identity-building of a volunteer workforce in an era of outcome-based commissioning.

Área de concentração: Organização e Gerência Orientadores: Octávio Amorim Neto e Mônica Pinhanez / Dissertação para obtenção do grau de mestre apresentada à Escola Brasileira de Administração Pública e de Empresas / Este estudo busca identificar os fatores que contribuem para a motivação dos indivíduos nas organizações da Marinha do Brasil e quais fatores gerenciais podem contribuir para os métodos utilizados pelo Programa Netuno nas organizações Militares da Marinha / This research seeks to identify factors that contribute to motivating individuals in the organization and managerial factors which may contribute to the methods used by the Neptune Program on Brazilian Navy Organizations. The literature search was conduct / Made available in DSpace on 2018-02-14T18:06:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2012. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2019-02-13T19:04:55Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000009a7.pdf: 2824292 bytes, checksum: 1bcc208f0310a3730b9532f85f9b4b51 (MD5)