Re/searching leadership: A critique in two agonies and nine fits

Ford, Jackie, Harding, Nancy and Gilmore, Sarah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3556-2532 2023. Re/searching leadership: A critique in two agonies and nine fits. Human Relations 76 (6) , pp. 809-832. 10.1177/00187267221079167

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Abstract

Since the nineteenth century much academic effort has been expended researching leadership. Bodies of theory have risen to dominance, proved unsatisfactory, and been replaced by another generation of ultimately-disappointing leadership thought. This repetitive pattern continues, so we ask what motivates this continuing, seemingly fruitless search? Focusing on researchers and not leadership per se, our analysis is inspired by two surprisingly complementary sources: psychoanalytical theory and Lewis Carroll’s epic nonsense poem The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits. Together they lead to a theory that re/search is motivated by unconscious desires to experience the transformational object – an ultimately unachievable search but one that unconsciously sustains the ever-growing field of leadership research. In contributing a new psychoanalytical theory of unconscious motivations that inspire our research, we also demonstrate the inspiration poetry may offer organizational researchers. We conclude by offering a ninth fit which leaps into the void of future thought and finds that the leadership Snark was, in fact, a Boojum.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Additional Information:	This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
ISSN:	0018-7267
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	26 January 2022
Date of Acceptance:	4 January 2022
Last Modified:	17 Nov 2023 15:24
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/146945

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