Masters Thesis by Angus Blair completed for an MCom at the University of Auckland, 2009.
Abstract: The current lofty status of leadership as a solution to ongoing social and economic problems draws attention to the diverse network of actors and institutions required to elevate and maintain its position as a strategic and moral imperative. One powerful approach to this is to look at the way leadership is produced commercially by the leadership industries. As Guthey, Clark & Jackson (2009) suggests, the most appropriate model for understanding the leadership industries is through a Production of Culture lens (Peterson, 1974). This thesis therefore illuminates the ways in which leadership concepts and practices are created, distributed, evaluated, taught, and preserved via the leadership development industry in New Zealand.
Through a series of interviews with key producers and a focus group with consumers and intermediaries; this thesis seeks to understand how leadership has been produced in a New Zealand context. Findings contribute to the development of the production of leadership perspective by elevating the tension held by participants who simultaneously hold leadership as a commodity whilst trying to retain the significant symbolic characteristics they associate with it.
Masters Thesis by Angus Blair completed for an MCom at the University of Auckland, 2009.
Abstract: The current lofty status of leadership as a solution to ongoing social and economic proble…