Leadership-as-practice: appreciation, critique,and future directions

This chapter addresses Leadership-As-Practice (L-A-P): a perspective on leadership which, rather than focusing on individual leaders and followers, draws attention to the importance of collective practices and sociomateriality in leadership processes. It emphasises the potential of leadership for building more democratic and just organisations, institutions and societies. The chapter is underpinned by the argument that, notwithstanding L-A-P’s continuing positive role within broader leadership scholarship, the time is now ripe to engage in a critical appraisal this approach and to outline constructive directions for its future development. The view of L-A-P presented combines appreciation and critique. The chapter begins with a brief overview of L-A-P before offering a critical discussion that considers: 1) the historico-geographical positioning of the intellectual development of L-A-P in the Western, post-war, post-colonial context; 2) the limited empirical applications of the L-A-P approach to contexts where values of democracy and collective decision-making do not prevail; 3) questions of agency and power within L-A-P, and the need for examining inequalities with regard to the unfolding of leadership practice. Possible future directions for the development of L-A-P are considered in the concluding part of the chapter.