9 - Leadership and identity in an imperfect world

Summary

Most of the knowledge about managers and leadership takes its starting point in what the manager or leader does and accomplishes. This is particularly evident in the popular literature – pop management or, as some people call it, management pornography – which puts the spotlight on formulae for success and juicy hero narratives. In academic literature, too, there are attempts to demonstrate that different types of leaders and leadership lead to different outcomes (Bass & Riggio 2006). The leader acts, others react. Countless leadership theories have been developed and dictate how the leader should be: charismatic, authentic and transformational, for example (Luthans & Avolio 2003). Or why not relational and dialogic (Cunliffe & Eriksen 2011)? Frequently, and of course above all in the popular literature, they offer clear-cut, often universal recipes for the right managerial behaviour, with the help of which all the right things can be accomplished. Another, slightly different study tradition which has a strong academic approach is the study of managerial work in practice. Instead of taking its starting point in what managers should do and accomplish, it focuses on what managers actually do in the organizational everyday (Tengblad 2012a).

In this book, as we have said, we shift the focus. Unlike a great deal of other research, we penetrate the surface – styles, behaviours, tasks, functions – and attempt to gain a deeper understanding of leadership and management based on how managers attempt to create meaning and achieve a balanced existence in a world in which it is often difficult to manoeuvre. Our aim is to illustrate management and its meaning using an identity perspective. How do managers approach the managerial work, not only in terms of activities and behaviour, but also and above all, in relation to how they see themselves, their interests, ambitions, emotions, dreams, fantasies and life experience? How do they deal with any dilemmas between self-view and imperfect reality? We attempt to capture the phenomenon of managerial life in a wider but also deeper and richer meaning based on managers’ own horizons of experience and attempts to create meaning and coherence in their existence, which is not, as has been seen, always the easiest thing to do.