Leadership as Identity

Management has failed: its successor is leadership. But can leadership fulfil the promises that are made in its name? Leadership as Identity, which brings together several studies of leadership, argues that it cannot. It shows how leadership -- as currently conceptualized and practiced -- ignores or actively denies its antagonistic or disconcerting aspects. It explores the negative and unsettling elements to leadership, showing that to be a leader is to be anxious, stressed and defeated by the burden of having to be super-human. The book is aimed at academics, students and managers. It uses poststructuralist theories about identity and the construction of the self to provide a body of ideas, a language even, that encourages readers to think in a different way about leadership. Anyone who has had any worries about the role of the leader -- teachers, trainers, leaders, managers, staff - worries that they haven't perhaps been able to put into words, will gain new ideas and insights from reading this book. Combining scholarship with accessibility, it encourages its readers to explore leadership more critically than they have done before.