Beyond Leaderism: Recentering Leadership Science Towards Relationships in Action

Abstract

The historical origins of ‘Great Man’ theories of leadership, and their contemporary offshoots, have produced an accumulated literature in which the leader's behaviours are the focal unit of analysis. This Point article surfaces five theoretical assumptions underlying the leader behavioural paradigm: leaderism, individualistic attribution, behavioural universalism, democratization of leadership, and individual‐level ontology. We discuss theoretical counterfactuals to each assumption and call for a shift in the scene of scholarly conversation, from individual leaders to relationships that incorporate context and stakeholders. This shift in the focal unit of analysis from individual leader behaviour to relationships represents a foundational theoretical pivot built on multidisciplinary foundations, attention to levels of analysis, and a deep grounding in context. By questioning the assumptions underlying 85 years of leader behaviour research, we argue that the science (episteme), skill development (techné), and contextual judgement (phronesis) of leadership could be more tightly coupled by directing the spotlight towards relationships in context rather than individual leaders. In doing so, we move the focus from leaders in action to leadership as relationships in action .