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Fantasies of leadership: Identity Work

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Author

Summary, in English

This article explores middle managerial talk and practice connected to expectations of leadership in a planned corporate cultural change programme. Here we explore how a middle manager positions him or herself in relation to contemporary discourse on leadership. We discuss how managerial claims of leadership in practice seem inconsistent with the actual practice. Based on these findings we suggest that leadership ideas could be seen as a kind of fantasy related to identity work, rather than actual practice. We investigate this fantasy in terms of its various sources and relate the fantasy construction to management education and to the planned cultural change in particular.

Publishing year

2006

Language

English

Pages

203-224

Publication/Series

Leadership

Volume

2

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Topic

  • Business Administration
  • Psychology

Keywords

  • fantasy
  • identity control
  • identity work
  • leadership
  • managerial work

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1742-7169