Classic approaches to leadership

This chapter summarises the classic theories of leadership. The reader will note the similarities that exist within this area of leadership studies – these theories all focus on the individual leader, and view leadership as a specialised role. In these classic approaches to leadership, leadership is something someone ‘does’, and the focus is solely on the formal leader and their personality characteristics or their attributes. These approaches are now sometimes referred to as entity leadership because leadership is the sole preserve of the entity or individual, and that individual is highly influential. These theories of leadership began to emerge in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and whilst they are now between 50 and 100 years old, it is important to explore them briefly, as they form the basis from which leadership studies first emerged.

Leadership as a collective process

As we have seen in the previous chapters of this book, one of the criticisms of a large section of leadership studies is that they still mostly focus on the role of those in formal leadership positions. The majority of leadership scholars still tend to study leadership from the perspective of the formal leaders, and with the preconception that leadership stems from a single source. This perspective is referred to as an entity-led perspective – viewing leadership through the lens of the behaviour of one person. By taking this entity-led perspective, leadership studies are still very narrow in focus. However, some scholars have begun to recognise the limitations of ‘heroic’ or entity-led leadership studies and have instead turned their focus from leadership as something a leader does, towards conceptualising leadership as an influence process (Langley & Tsoukas, 2017; Northouse, 2017).

Knowledge and event leadership (Jane Tattersall)

The aim of this chapter is to explain the value and management of different types of knowledge in an events or music festival business setting, where its potential to maximise profit and help an organisation to outperform its rivals has received less attention in academic literature than other sectors such as manufacturing or information technology. Competition in the events and festivals sectors has increased considerably as more companies join the market, and the nature and scope of events has widened to satisfy consumer appetites for more diverse and engaging experiences. Leaders that nurture, recognise, manage and employ knowledge effectively are more likely to be innovative and successful in their sector. Throughout the chapter, knowledge is explored mostly through the lens of music festivals, although the points made are easily applicable to the wider events, tourism and leisure sectors.

The new wave of leadership studies

In their comprehensive review of leadership research, Dionne et al. (2014) identify 29 different thematic categories of leadership theories, developed over 100 years; 17 are ‘classic’ leadership categories, and 12 are classified as emerging. Dinh et al. (2014) note seven emerging theories in their review and in their examination of recent theoretical and empirical developments, while Avolio, Walumbwa and Weber (2009) note 13 significant areas of new inquiry into leadership. These studies indicate that there has been a focus shift in leadership studies, which represents a diversification of thinking around how leadership occurs, and what leadership actually is. In particular, scholars have begun to focus on the moral nature of leaders, suggesting that leaders now need to be concerned with issues of ethics and morality (Lemoine, Hartnell & Leroy, 2019).

Modelling events as social agents of change (Dr Miriam Firth)

This chapter offers a model of events as social agents of change to outline how leadership in, and through, events evidence leadership of societal change. First, ‘social agents of change’ is defined to clarify this term to apply to the model. Following this, each area of the model is discussed to identify how events can be modelled as social agents of change. Through this model, you can consider how events provide information and education, how events clarify societal behaviour and action, how leaderless events support cultural and political issues, and how events management has created new employability practices. Each element of this model refers to theory and case studies to provide support for events being seen as social agents of change. The summary offers the model in full and student questions offered at the end enable you to apply this in your studies to complete critical analysis of events as social agents of change.

What is leadership

Nearly 100 years of leadership studies have resulted in a large body of literature that suggests that leadership matters in all aspects of life. Studies have also shown that soft skills, such as leadership, are key to continued success in complex, fast changing organisations, and in a variety of managerial contexts. The nature of leadership within organisations and the styles of leadership required for specific business management roles have frequently been studied and there is a broad consensus that leadership matters in a range of managerial positions including event project management, tourism and hospitality management, human resources and a variety of other senior organisational roles. Leadership practices are essential for the development of successful event managers and leadership in planned events and event tourism therefore cannot be ignored.

Events, leadership and power

A criticism of many of the conceptualisations of leadership is that they tend to focus on the positive nature of leadership and ignore the issues of power, influence and domination (Bolden, 2011). This really is a key criticism, because when you think about it, how can leadership be untangled from the power dynamics that occur within and around it? Despite the rise in viewing leadership as an influence process, as charted in Chapters 3,4 and 5 of this book, leadership in events is still often attributed to those in formal positions of power – by that I mean those in managerial positions, who have the power to make decisions about their followers working lives, and even – at the extreme end – decide to terminate people’s employment. Critics such as Bolden (2011), Alvesson and Spicer (2012) argue that when leadership is the preserve of those in managerial positions, then the dynamics of who holds the power in the relationships are always unequal, and it is impossible to overcome these inequalities, because one person is always in a stronger position than the other. This chapter therefore gives the reader a brief overview on the power of leaders in events, and an insight into both the benefits and issues of that power. A second level of concern is also leadership within the events community – who is it that brings people and organisations together? What does it take to achieve effective collaboration among events and between events and other key stakeholders? This might be a matter of individual leaders taking charge, but equally it could be that leadership emerges from specific network dynamics. In viewing leadership as both a process of influence and a process of power, we can gain useful insights into the power relationships that may be at work.

Leader follower perspectives

As we saw in the previous chapter, classic approaches to understanding leadership all shared the view that leadership is a specialised role – they focused on the individual and, whilst some of these theories looked at what other influences there may be (i.e. the situational context), they did so through the lens of the primary leader, carrying out leadership functions. This then can be seen as their one key limitation – they are leadercentric and don’t tend to recognise followers’ characteristics or initiatives (Uhl-Bien, Riggio, Lowe, & Carsten, 2014). This focus on the ‘heroic leader’ has, over the last 50 years, become increasingly criticised, as researchers began to look at leadership behaviours from a influence perspective, considering the dynamics of the leader-follower behaviours and leadership styles that might influence or change the behaviours of their followers or work subordinates. As Burns (1978) suggested, at this point, we knew a lot about leaders, whilst knowing very little about leadership. The body of work that grew out of such observations was largely concerned with what became known as charismatic and transactional /transformational leadership (Bass, 1985). Here scholars had started to focus on leadership styles – what is it that leaders do that makes them effective – and on the impact the leader has on their followers.

Leadership as a skill

In both the event industry, and in scholarly research, leadership is often considered as a skill. This school of thought is closely related to the trait theories of leadership, as conceptually, it is hard to differentiate between the personality traits leaders possess and the skills that they demonstrate. What is the difference between the terms? Well, it is widely accepted that traits are innate, but skills can be learnt (Athey & Orth, 1999). So, skills differ from traits because they are considered to be something that can be developed – a practised ability. A skill is the ability to do a job well, particularly if you have practiced it. This school of thought therefore suggests that you might not be a ‘natural leader’, but you can develop the necessary set of skills that will allow you to become a good one. As such, you can develop the capabilities required to lead (Mumford et al., 2000b).