Making sense of the rise and fall of Jeremy Corbyn: Towards an ambiguity-centred perspective on authentic leadership

Abstract

When Jeremy Corbyn was first elected as leader of the Labour party in 2015, he was framed in the media as a new type of authentic political leader. Corbyn seemed to represent everything that a typical politician was not: honest, straight talking, principled and someone who always stayed true to his beliefs. In the aftermath of the December 2019 general election and the worst defeat for the Labour party since 1935, this article takes stock of how authenticity featured in the media discourse during Corbyn’s tenure as a party leader. Three competing discourses are identified. The first discourse categorised Corbyn as authentic and framed his authenticity as a leadership strength. The second discourse framed Corbyn as inauthentic. The third discourse framed Corbyn’s authenticity as a leadership problem. The study reveals a deeply ambivalent and contradictory set of discourses of authenticity that circulated in the media and highlights the ideological function performed by these competing discourses, which juxtapose ideas and ideals of personal authenticity against ideas and ideals about what constitutes effective political leadership. The article concludes by advancing an ambiguity-centred approach (Alvesson M and Spicer A (eds) (2010) Metaphors We Lead By: Understanding Leadership in the Real World. London: Routledge) to understanding authentic leadership, where authenticity is understood as a set of ambiguous and competing discursive attributions made within a contested social and political context.

Authenticity and atypicality in leadership: Can an atypical leader afford to be authentic?

“…Authenticity is not just a state of being for an individual, but is also a discourse which can be produced, reproduced or criticized by others (Whittle, 2021). For instance, constructing an authentic identity is a highly desired quality for creative leaders such as artists, choreographers or chefs, who manage creative teams and produce creative outcomes that are interpreted by others as challenging existing conventions within their field, and often as being a genuine extension of their ‘true self’ (Mainemelis et al., 2015; Samdanis & Lee, 2021).…”

“…Authenticity refers to the congruence between an individual's internal sense of self and their outwardly displayed behaviours (Harter, 2002). Often seen as a positive trait, authenticity is a relational quality attributed to individuals or groups by others (Whittle, 2021). In a workplace setting, authenticity manifests in daily interactions, where an individual's actions align with their identity.…”

The gaslighting of authentic leadership

“…We contend that the reason why ALT has such appeal is that it captures a real phenomenon that even its critics have experienced. Hence, we think it is more productive to advance alternative perspectives of this phenomenon and suggest refinements to the theory, as is the case for many of the articles published in the Leadership special issue (Bradley-Cole, 2021; Larsson et al, 2021; Whittle, 2020; Iszatt-White et al, 2021) and elsewhere (e.g. Iszatt-White and Kempster, 2019), rather than attempting to gaslight scholars and practitioners alike by trying to convince them that a phenomenon they have personally witnessed is not real.…”

Liderança E Organizações De Movimentos Sociais: Uma Análise Etnometodológica De Uma Organização Do Movimento Estudantil Brasileiro

“…Desde então, observa-se o aumento do interesse do campo de liderança pela etnometodologia, sendo consensual a necessidade de análises que enfoquem as ações práticas do fenômeno durante a construção de estratégias (ISZATT-WHITE, 2010), identidades coletivas (LARSSON; LUNDHOLM, 2013), projetos (PACKENDORFF, CREVANI; LINDGREN, 2014), sentidos (WHITTLE et al, 2015), posições e posicionamentos (MESCHITTI, 2019). Dentre essas pesquisas etnometodológicas, algumas usam a análise da conversação, como técnica suplementar à etnometodologia.…”

“…A análise da conversação também não é nova para os estudos de liderança, de modo que não são raros os estudiosos que a utilizam, destacando-se Andrea Whittle (WHITTLE, 2021, WHITTLE et al, 2015, FAIRHURST, 2007cCOOREN, 2004), Jonathan Clifton (CLIFTON; DAI, 2020, CLIFTON; LARSSON; SCHNURR, 2020, CLIFTON; SCHNURR; VAN DE MIEROOP, 2020, CLIFTON, 2019 et al, 2019). Como uma possibilidade de análise do discurso, a análise da conversação está intimamente relacionada aos pressupostos da Teoria de Categorizações de Pertencimento (TCP), logo, concentra-se na 'fala em interação' (talk-in-interaction) (SACKS, 1972b) ou, nas palavras de Fairhurst (2007c), no fazer do discurso organizacional.…”