Reflections on Current Directions in Leadership Research: A reflexive-ethnographic examination of leader–follower and group dynamics in an International Human Rights Based Organization

Abstract

This study problematizes the down play of heroic perspectives in the currently rising critical and post-heroic leadership research. It argues that compromising either the critical or the post-heroic perspectives in favour of the other would constrict or mislead our understanding of the social influence of leadership processes. This study calls for maintaining the theoretical uniqueness of both perspectives in order to enhance new understandings and broader knowledge claims. Therefore, the study adopts a reflexive-ethnographic examination of the leader-follower and group dynamics, in an International Human Rights Based Organization. The overall aim is to develop an understanding of how individuals in an International Organization like Global Peace Organization (GPO) cope with the universal scope of their organization and the diversity in their work environment. This aim is fulfilled through examining self-narratives generated by the participants in their day to day interactions. To facilitate the coherence between the two leadership perspectives in this examination, a dialectical dimension is enhanced by extending the emerging tactics of reflexivity and intertextuality to the various stages of research. The critical perspective then reveals a context-driven approach in the self-narratives where participants use their particular worldviews to interpret dilemmas and conflicts originating in their work. Conflicts between participants and their leaders also reflect power interplays based on crafting a sense of we-ness / us in self-Other encounters. However, an added perspective on interpersonal relations suggests the significance of the single factor where the less secure participants tend to mask their resistance with creative impression-management strategies. This eventually transforms their insecurities into more positive attitudes and behaviours which repositions them as informal leaders in their groups.