There is no such thing as leadership, revisited

Abstract

Purpose

This essay reflects a profound sense of frustration with the concept of leadership and the enormous and every increasing body of research and pontification about it. Given the ongoing failure to define leadership as a coherent construct, it aims to argue that continuing along this omni‐directional path is not likely to produce anything truly useful for those who study, teach about or work in organizations; rather, abandoning the concept altogether and emphasizing a focus on improving decision making in organizations may prove more fruitful.

Design/methodology/approach

Looks at different concepts of leadership and the enormous and ever‐increasing body of research and pontification about it.

Findings

In the end, however, the author believes that we are mostly left with endless discussions and perspectives of a word that simply sounds better. We seem to remain intent on calling almost everything leadership – but, if everything is leadership, then logically nothing is leadership.

Originality/value

This review is a useful source of information for anyone interested in the concept of leadership.

Citation

Washbush, J.B. (2005), "There is no such thing as leadership, revisited", Management Decision, Vol. 43 No. 7/8, pp. 1078-1085. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740510610080