• Understand the relational and contextual aspects of leadership
• Critically assess different theories and their relationship to one another
• Apply theoretical concepts thoughtfully in the conduct of discourse analysis
• Formulate and structure their analysis in good academic language
• Identify how specific leaders mobilize followers in a given context
• Analyze how mobilization is accomplished discursively
• Socially construct alternative mobilization discourses for a specific leader

Aim of the course
The course enables students to both de- and re-construct leader-follower relations. They learn to deconstruct leadership discourse and to identify the archetypes and templates behind leadership expectations (of which organizational actors may be unaware). Re-construction takes place as students learn to craft alternative leadership discourses and extend their own repertoire of leadership relations.

The course introduces students to contemporary leadership theory, which views leadership as a relationship involving a leader, followers and a context. The focus is on how leaders mobilize followers within a particular social and organizational context. This mobilization is constructed through an (inter-)action that takes place primarily through language and discourse.

The course spans from the analysis of leaders’ motivation of followers in discourse to the establishing of effective and sustainable expressions of leadership. Students are encouraged to identify and expand their own approaches to leadership and to identify the ways of motivating followers that they find ethically acceptable.

Overlap with the course Managing Organizational Change 
The course Leadership extends the theoretical orientation of Managing organizational change to the study of leadership. Students learn theoretical concepts and analytical tools that they then use to analyze leaders through texts. 

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Fanelli, A. & Grasselli, N. I. 2005. “Defeating the Minotaur: The Construction of CEO Charisma on the US Stock Market”. Organization Studies 27(6): 811-832.
Jackson, B. G. 1999. “The Goose that Laid the Golder Egg?: A Rhetorical Critique of Stephen Covey and the Effectiveness Movement’. Journal of Management Studies 36(3): 353-377.
Khurana, R. 2002. “The Curse of the Superstar CEO”. Harvard Business Review 80(9): 60-66.
Steyrer, J. 1998. “Charisma and the Archetypes of Leadership”. Organization Studies 19(5): 807-828.
Waldman, D. A., Ramirez, G. G., House, R. J., & Puranam, P. 2001. “Does leadership matter? CEO leadership attributes and profitability under conditions of perceived environmental uncertainty.” Academy of Management Journal 44(1): 134-143.