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Although the idea of leadership being a process is clearly stated in leadership definitions, most researchers focus on individuals rather than observing and studying processes. This contradiction has been highlighted by a number of scholars turning to leadership processes and practices, thereby drawing attention to the interactional and social aspects of the phenomenon. Such contributions mostly take process perspectives in which entities still play an important role. In this article, I therefore aim at contributing to leadership studies based on a process ontology by exploring one central aspect of leadership work, the production of direction, processually. I do so by building on geographer Massey's (2005) conception of space, thus adding a spatial dimension that enables me to conceptualize direction as the development of an evolving relational configuration. In order to empirically explore such a conceptualization, two constructs are proposed: the construction of positions and the construction of issues. The reading of leadership work thus produced leads me to suggest 'clearing for action' as a means of conveying the spatio-temporal and constructive (reality constructing) character of leadership work. 2Claiming that leadership is a process may not be controversial and the word 'process' may in fact be found in several definitions of leadership (cf Parry and Bryman, 2006, Schedlitzki andEdwards, 2014). More controversial is defining in what way leadership is a process and how, then, to study such a phenomenon.The result has often been a focus on single individuals, their characteristics and their behaviors (cf Parry and Bryman, 2006). Even when drawing on theories viewing leadership as a relationship, scholars often assess such a relationship individualistically, basing their conclusions on followers' or managers' ratings (Fairhurst and Uhl-Bien, 2012). Such contradictions have been highlighted by an increasing number of scholars (ibid, for example) and are connected with the methodological question of how to study leadership and what kind of (limited) knowledge researchers can develop by using different methods (Alvesson, 1996). Hence, an increasing number of scholars criticize leadership studies for essentializing leadership by locating it in a person and/or situation, thus not researching the process itself (Dachler and Hosking, 1995, Carroll and Richmond, 2008, Crevani et al., 2010, Raelin, forthcoming, to mention a few).Such essentializing approaches may be criticized not only for reducing a social phenomenon to an individual's qualities, but also for not recognizing that 'persons', 'situations', what is considered 'leadership' and what is considered 'proper behavior' are ongoing social constructions, not stable and evident facts (Fairhurst, 2009, Endrissat andvon Arx, 2013). Leadership could instead be considered a phenomenon produced and sustained in interactions, a situated and relational phenomenon (Uhl-Bien and Ospina, 2012;Crevani et al., 2010). More attention should be paid to how lea...

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Drawing on the current research in general leadership, we propose that a process ontology is relevant and rewarding for project leadership studies. We argue that project leadership can be studied as the ongoing social production of direction through the construction of actors’ space of action, involving continuous construction and reconstruction of (1) past project activities and events; (2) positions and areas of responsibility; (3) discarded, ongoing, and future issues; and (4) intensity, rhythm, and pace. Through an ethnographic case study of an organizational change project, we show how space of action and hence the project direction are in constant flux and becoming.

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