Simon Western
Sergio Caredda
Western, S. (2019). Leadership: A Critical text. (3rd ed.). Sage.
Description:
Simon Western has developed this model based on his doctoral research on how leadership models have evolved. He identified four “discourses” of leadership, that evolved over time. These four discourses form a meta-study of leadership in a social and economic context.
The Discourses of Leadership. (Western, 2019)
- The Leader as a Controller: the focus is on maximising efficiency and control to increase output. It has been the dominant discourse for many decades and descends from the scientific management principles.
- The Leader as a Therapist: here the assumption is that the Leader has to work on human relations, following the slogan “happy workers are more productive”. This model emerged from the Human Relations movement, but developed traction in the 1960s, together with the development of HR departments, and the focus on self-development (especially through assessment and coaching).
- The Leader as a Messiah: this narrative developed in the 1980s following the first large economic crisis of that period. Taking some “great-man” principles, this discourse developed in parallel with those of corporate culture and vision. You needed a transformational leader to succeed. Control is achieved through “culture fit” and social surveillance, rather than through power and coercion.
- The Eco-Leader: is the newest discourse, and focuses on connectivity, inter-dependence, ethics and leadership spirit.
The new Eco-leadership discourse has three key qualities:
- Connectivity (holism): It is founded on connectivity; how we relate and interrelate with the ecologies in which we work and live.
- Eco-ethics: It is concerned with acting ethically in the human realm and with respect and responsibility for the natural environment.
- Leadership spirit: It acknowledges the human spirit, the non-rational aspects of mind, creativity, imagination and human relationships. (Western, 2012)
The new Eco-Leadership: encompassing all discourses. (Western, 2019)
The approach doesn’t simply evolve to a new discourse, but encompasses the pre-existing ones, offering a way of incorporating them in the right places and contexts, as each discourse had its validity principles.
Notes:
Other Sources:
Book review: Leadership: A Critical Text by Simon Western | Sergio Caredda
Simon Western's book " Leadership: A Critical Text" is in its third edition. It draws on a holistic framework built to understand Leadership from a critical-analysis standpoint and is the fruit of disciplined and structured research spanning years of Leadership literature. It is also a complex reading.
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