All things to all people? Perceptions, attributions, and constructions of leadership

Abstract

Recent theory and research has begun to question many of the ontological and epistemological assumptions underpinning mainstream perspectives on leadership, emphasizing its attributional basis and the socially constructed and contested nature of its meaning. This paper attempts to contribute to this emerging critique by employing an interpretive approach in order to explore the constructions placed upon the phenomenon of leadership by practicing managers and the particular meanings and assumptions that the term conveys. The paper draws upon interviews with managers in the construction industry to develop its main argument: that radical critiques of mainstream leadership theory and research often lose sight of the role of subjective interpretation and agency in the formulation and enactment of the "social myth" of leadership and that an interpretive approach, which explores individuals' own "implicit leadership theories," can make an important contribution to the further understanding of leadership as a socially constructed phenomenon.