Jonathan Gosling

University of Exeter | UoE · Centre for Leadership Studies

Suggestions that change can be handled through ‘adaptation and resilience’ assume continuity of cultural norms and value judgments; but here we explore what might happen if cultural assumptions are upset by radically discontinuous change. We ask what it means to be in change that is beyond adaptation, change that utterly confounds our notions of wh...

Academic work on responsible leadership has emphasised two aspects: the value orientation of leaders, and the scope of interests they consider in their leadership – the range of stakeholders, current and future, human and non-human. I address these via two questions that are equally important but different in scale: one is about the motives for ind...

Although it is widely recognized that strong program management is essential to achieving better health outcomes, this priority is not recognized in malaria programmatic practices. Increased management precision offers the opportunity to improve the effectiveness of malaria interventions, overcoming operational barriers to intervention coverage and...

Leadership and management skills are critical for health programs to deliver high-quality interventions in complex systems. In malaria-eliminating countries, national and subnational health teams are reorienting strategies to address focal transmission while preventing new cases and adapting to decentralization and declines in external financing. A...

Research on ethical leadership in organizations has been largely based on Western philosophical traditions and has tended to focus on Western corporate experiences. Insights gained from such studies may however not be universally applicable in other cultural contexts. This paper examines the normative grounds for an alternative Confucian virtue-bas...

This paper focuses on the phenomenon of corporate lobbying for more ambitious government intervention to tackle sustainability challenges and explores how we can account for the occurrence of such activity. To do this it builds on both the Responsible Leadership literature and Ricoeur’s theories of the self, motivated action and the ethical intenti...

What might the world look like in the aftermath of COVID-19? Almost every aspect of society will change after the pandemic, but if we learn lessons then life can be better. Featuring expert authors from across academia and civil society, this book offers ideas that might put us on alternative paths for positive social change. A rapid intervention i...

This article introduces a non-Anglophone concept of gong qi (communal vessel, 公器) as a metaphor for ‘corporation’. It contributes an endogenous perspective from a Sino-Japanese organizational context that enriches mainstream business ethics literature, otherwise heavily reliant on Western traditions. We translate the multi-layered meanings of gong...

Background: Focus for improved malaria programme performance is often placed on the technical challenges, while operational issues are neglected. Many of the operational challenges that inhibit malaria programme effectiveness can be addressed by improving communication and coordination, increasing accountability, maintaining motivation, providing...

Background Focus for improved malaria program performance is often placed on the technical challenges, while operational issues are neglected. Many of the operational challenges that inhibit malaria program effectiveness can be addressed by improving communication and coordination, increasing accountability, maintaining motivation, providing adequa...

Background Focus for improved malaria program performance is often placed on the technical challenges, while operational issues are neglected. Many of the operational challenges that inhibit malaria program effectiveness can be addressed by improving communication and coordination, increasing accountability, maintaining motivation, providing adequa...

Background Focus for improved malaria programme performance is often placed on the technical challenges, while operational issues are neglected. Many of the operational challenges that inhibit malaria programme effectiveness can be addressed by improving communication and coordination, increasing accountability, maintaining motivation, providing ad...

Ken Parry once asked me why I wanted to take the lead on a particular initiative. This paper summarises the answer I'd like to have given him. Taking the lead is pleasurable in three principle ways: it affirms or modifies self-concept, confirms a degree of control over the external world and promises self-transcendence through relationship with oth...

In January 2009, Hudson Lee, President of Tetra Pak China, was looking over a cliff. The company had invested €65 million to expand its packaging plant on Hohhot, the capital city of Inner Mongolia, China, on top of its initial 2004 investment of €50 m. The expansion plan was based on the inexorable rise in milk consumption in China – growing from...

Assuming we have just one planet - and we all have to get along together with its limited but glorious resources - this book shows what we need to learn about each of the key business disciplines. It is a business text-book for those who prefer sanity to wishful thinking.

Is management and organization much the same the world over, or are there significant cultural variations to the practice of management, the concerns of managers, or the sensibilities they bring to their roles (Yang 2012)? What is distinctive about managing and organizing in China? Although framed as an empirical question, the answers are necessari...

Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) is a topic that has become increasingly important in recent years. However, very few papers focus on studying SSCM from both leadership and learning perspectives. In this research, we carry out a content-based literature review on the intersections of Supply Chain leadership, Supply Chain Learning and SSCM...

In this paper we approach the ‘social unconscious’ of organisations as expressed through the process of social dreaming, which we describe below. The social dreaming matrix (SDM) is understood as being a shared liminal space in which we each, as members of the organisation, dreamers and participants in the SDM, have access to perspectives that are...

In the face of strong competitive pressure and a very dynamic market, multi national companies in China are forced to innovate with extraordinary pace and inventiveness. Environmental sustainability is a vital benchmark, and also a key driver for the best companies in each sector – many of them allied with WWF, the conservation NGO. This book shows...

Effective program management is essential for successful elimination of malaria. In this perspective article, evidence surrounding malaria program management is reviewed by management science and malaria experts through a literature search of published and unpublished gray documents and key informant interviews. Program management in a malaria elim...

Power in business schools is ubiquitous. We develop individuals for powerful positions. Yet, the way we deal with power is limited by our utilitarian focus, avoiding its visceral nature. In relation to this we address two questions business schools don't ask: "What is the experiential nature of power? How are we teaching power?" We use experiential...

This paper explores the growth of corporate branding in higher education (HE) and its use by academic and professional managers as a mechanism for not only enhancing institutional reputation but also for facilitating internal culture change. It uses Bourdieu’s framework of field, capital and habitus to analyse case studies of branding in two Englis...

Effective program management is essential to ensure the elimination and eventual eradication of malaria.1 Malaria elimination, defined as the interruption of local transmission in a specific geographical area,2 is a long-term, focused and technical process that requires effective management and communication at all levels. There are several core fe...

This paper explores the growth of corporate branding in higher education and its use by academic and professional managers as a mechanism for not only enhancing institutional reputation but also for facilitating internal culture change. It uses Bourdieu’s framework of field, capital and habitus to analyse case studies of branding in two English bus...

Purpose ‐ This study aims to explore the experience of eight international companies, focusing on their strategies in sustainable innovations in China. Design/methodology/approach ‐ This investigation is accomplished using a case study methodology. The research is based on the companies' secondary data and 47 semi-structured face-to-face interviews...

The paradox of dependency arises when learners must become dependent in order to enhance independence. This double bind often excites demands for ‘quick fixes’ to reassure both students and staff that the dependent relationship can be fruitful. But this attempt to resolve rather than hold the paradox can be counterproductive. We present a structure...

The article considers the role of dreams as social, rather than individual, phenomena and suggests that as such they may serve as resources for ‘future imaginings’ with respect to potentially devastating consequences of climate change (and other transgressions of planetary boundaries). Adopting a socio-analytical perspective, it contemplates the po...

This paper presents a societal perspective on academic leadership by exploring the preoccupations of academics as citizens rather than as employees, managers or individuals. It uses a listening post methodology to ask ‘what is it like to be a citizen of an academic institution in contemporary Britain?’ Three listening posts, comprising 26 participa...

The article considers the role of dreams as social, rather than individual, phenomena and suggests that as such they may serve as resources for ‘future imaginings’ with respect to potentially devastating consequences of climate change (and other transgressions of planetary boundaries). Adopting a socio-analytical perspective, it contemplates the po...

Considering ours as a time of crisis, this chapter asks: what if this were not simply an episode, but really the end of an era?; for example, if we face fundamental changes of the scale and order that affected African societies when impacted by colonialism.

1. INTRODUCTION: EXPLORING LEADERSHIP Not Another Book on Leadership! Leadership: The Panacea Of Our Times? Changing Perspectives on Leadership Studying Leadership Dissatisfaction With Leadership and Management Theory and Education Reframing Leadership Studies Chapter Summary 2. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON LEADERSHIP The Contested Nature of Leaders...

What are the main characteristics of effective leadership? How can we understand leadership today?This wide-ranging, interdisciplinary book provides readers with a complete introduction to the essentials of leadership. Included here are accessible and insightful entries on what leadership is, how it is practiced and the relevant strengths and pitfa...

Broad, yet critically informed, overview of the field of leadership studies Up-to-date review of contemporary theory and research Sets out implications for development and practice Accessibly written with lively practical examples by a team of leading experts Multidisciplinary approach

This article offers a theoretical contribution to the current debate on workplace spirituality by: (a) providing a selective critical review of scholarship, research and corporate practices which treat workplace spirituality in performative terms, that is, as a resource or means to be manipulated instrumentally and appropriated for economic ends; (...

Developing from histories of arts administration and arts management, “cultural leadership” has recently become a focus within the cultural sector and the creative industries of the UK. This article interrogates a basic question—what is cultural leadership? Beginning with secondary sources (historical summaries, policy documents, arts/cultural gran...

Process theories of leadership emphasize its relational nature but lack a substantial method of analysis. We offer an account of leadership as a language-game, employing the concepts of opaque context and propositional attitudes. Using established methods of linguistic analysis, we reformulate Weber's understanding of charismatic leadership. A by-p...

Author's draft version; post-print. Final version available on Sage Journals Online

Author's draft; final version available on Sage Journals Online The term ‘distributed leadership’ has been prominent in research into educational management for some time. A number of articles have recently questioned the explanatory utility of the concept; in this essay we examine its rhetorical function in higher education institutions. We sugges...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between friendship and betrayal. Both are perceived to involve dynamics that can have a major impact in organizations, but both have tended to be under researched. Design/methodology/approach – The paper brings together ideas from psychoanalysis (object relations theory), archetypa...

Accepted for publication in Educational Management, Administration and Leadership, 2008/9. Final version available online on Sage Journals Online at http://ema.sagepub.com/ In this paper we present findings from research in 12 UK universities that sought to capture a range of perspectives on ‘distributed leadership’ and reveal common and competing...

Conference paper Presented at the Annual Conference of the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE), December 2007 In this paper we will present findings from a recent LFHE-funded study comprising interviews with 152 university leaders at various levels in 12 UK universities to explore competing perceptions, experiences and approaches to l...

This article reviews the outcomes of a three year workshop series with senior leadership and management development managers from a range of public and private sector organisations. The aim of this enquiry was to explore the interface between performance management and leadership development systems and the extent to which they can complement one a...

Executive summary to the interim report, October 2006; full text of the final report may be downloaded free from LFHE website but registration is required Leadership Foundation for Higher Education

Although wisdom might be considered a quaint concept in a post-industrialised, instrumental and secular world, it deserves serious consideration. This is done primarily from a philosophical perspective and is intended to encourage the reintroduction of wisdom into educational and developmental programmes, especially for managers and leaders. Mindfu...

Management is often taught as if it were immaterial—a set of abstract formulae, case histories and flow diagrams. These may be useful, but only if tested and put to use in the material practice of managing. Education makes matters worse if it becomes the simple consumption of this insubstantial fare. This article proposes seven principles for educa...

This article indicates how the competency approach to leadership could be conceived of as a repeating refrain that continues to offer an illusory promise to rationalize and simplify the processes of selecting, measuring and developing leaders, yet only reflects a fragment of the complexity that is leadership. To make this argument we draw on two se...

Are we mistaken when we attempt to cultivate the individual capabilities of charismatic-, visionary-, transformational-leaders in abstraction from the cultural and institutional settings that shape leadership behaviour. Rather than locate ‘leadership’ as something resident in one or more individuals, should we instead think of leadership as somethi...

This paper follows research and development work on how leaders learn from difference, learn from each other and learn from practice through a training program called Lead2lead (www.lead2lead.net). This program takes leaders through a 'leadership exchange' where they receive leadership coaching, training in observation skills, and then partner up a...

The authors argue that contemporary management education does a disservice by standardizing content, focusing on business functions (instead of managing practices) and training specialists (rather than general managers). Working with several major international universities, the authors have developed a vision of management education that grounds M...

Managers are told: Be global and be local. Collaborate and compete. Change, perpetually, and maintain order. Make the numbers while nurturing your people. To be effective, managers need to consider the juxtapositions in order to arrive at a deep integration of these seemingly contradictory concerns. That means they must focus not only on what they...

Borders of different kinds get in the way of management education. Six years of experience with the International Masters Program in Practicing Management has suggested how we might break down these borders, to get beyond "students", beyond "globalization", beyond "teaching", and beyond the business functions. The management education classroom sho...

Borders of different kinds get in the way of management education. Six years of experience with the International Masters Program in Practicing Management has suggested how we might break down these borders, to get beyond "students," beyond "globalization," beyond "teaching," and beyond the business functions. The management education classroom sho...

This article reviews attempts to make use of managers' current work within the context of accredited courses. It examines implicit notions about knowledge, experimental methods, group dynamics and the learning company, referring to specific events of post-experience executive MBA courses. Several interpretive heuristics are offered in order to `rou...

This paper follows research and development work undertaken at Lancaster University Management school on how leaders learn from difference, learn from each other and learn from practice through a training program called Lead2lead (www.lead2lead.net). This programme takes leaders through a 'leadership exchange' where they receive leadership coaching...

HR Magazine, September 2004, vol. 49(9), p.151-156 Take time out of your busy day to reflect on yourself and where your team is headed. Reflecting a few minutes a day will keep you and your team on the right course. The following suggestions were made by a group of vice presidents of large North American companies: "Stop all this 'do, do, do' and p...

This report presents a review of leadership theory and competency frameworks that was commissioned to assist the development of the new National Occupational Standards in Management and Leadership. The report begins with a review of leadership theories and tracks their evolution over the past 70 years from the “great man” notion of heroic leaders,...

It is possible to summarise the objective of leadership as “direction setting”. In a large organisation these two simple words encapsulate a host of intriguing problems, sometimes nearly impossible to resolve because they involve arts of persuasion, intuition, and sheer bravado just as much as sciences of analysis, synthesis and design. But this ar...

Not all successful leadership is good leadership. As Peter Drucker once remarked, the 20th century produced three great leaders: Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Conversely, many leaders who fail to achieve their aims nonetheless deserve respect and praise. In fact we can probably learn more about how to do good by studying those who struggle for it in almo...