Discursive Leadership: In Conversation with Leadership Psychology
Intended Audience:
This book is not specifically about framing. This book helps scholars, researchers, and practitioners understand
the complexities of leadership as it continues to evolve due to such influences as globalization, technology
change, and democratization of the workplace. It is also an excellent text for graduate courses such as
Leadership; Rhetoric of Leadership; Interpretive Studies of Organizational Communication; Organizational
Communication; and Leadership & Communication in the departments of communication, business &
management, psychology, and educational administration.
2007 National Communication Association, Organizational Communication
Division, "Best Book" AwardDiscursive Leadership: In Conversation with
Leadership Psychology presents a new, groundbreaking way for scholars and graduate students to
examine and explore leadership. Differing from a psychological approach to leadership which tries to get
inside the heads of leaders and employees, author Gail Fairhurst focuses on the social or communicative
aspects between them. A discursive approach to leadership introduces a host of relatively new ideas and
concepts and helps us understand leadership’s changing role in organizations.
Key
Features:
- Compares and contrasts discursive leadership with leadership psychology: This comparison facilitates a
clearer definition of discursive leadership.
- Presents new ways to study leadership: By treating each discourse concept as a heuristic device and
supporting each concept with examples, new ways to study leadership are introduced by focusing on key
concepts from the organizational discourse literature.
- Addresses some key challenges within leadership psychology: Each chapter begins with an ongoing debate
in leadership psychology and illustrates how a discursive approach can join that debate. Charismatic
leadership, leader-member exchange, authentic leadership are just a few of the examples.
- Offers reactions from leadership psychologists: Leadership psychologists and other discourse scholars
respond to the author’s proposed ‘conversation’ between them broadening the debate and introducing new
perspectives.
- Provides quick reviews and extended examples: The book includes critical summaries at the end of each
chapter and easy-to-reference appendices.
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Praise for Discursive Leadership
"Citing the well known adage that there are as many definitions of leadership as there are leadership
scholars, Fairhurst acknowledges the contributions which psychologists have made to leadership research,
before probing the inevitable limitations to their formidable body of work. Fairhurst's work is also
thought provoking on the issue of authenticity on the part of leaders."
—HUMAN RELATIONS
Dennis Tourish
Robert Gordon University
"Unusually for an edited book, this text offers strong insights and cogency of argument throughout. In
general, in my opinion, it manages to maintain a discursive focus while avoiding the exaggerated claims
for the value of its approach that often mar this kind of endeavour."
Dennis Tourish
Aberdeen Business School, Robert Gordon University, UK
Human Relations
To purchase Discursive Leadership, click here.