The Value of Autoethnography in Leadership Studies, and its Pitfalls

Abstract

The field of leadership studies frequently focuses on defining leadership traits in abstraction from the context in which leadership operates. The first aim of this article is to provide a brief overview of reasons why this might be the case. Reasons include: leadership studies being dominated by the perspectives of leaders; the lack of definition and visibility of followership studies; the status and limitations of much qualitative research; and a predominant focus on good leadership. Consequently, many people who experience the effects of leadership, and particularly those of bad leadership, do not recognise their experiences in the literature. However, recognising that followers who experience bad leadership personally increasingly engage in autoethnographic studies, my second aim is to draw out some examples of bad leadership from the autoethnographic literature, as well as their effects. In spite of its negative effects, bad leadership frequently remains unchallenged. My third aim is to explain why this might be the case, where I argue that this stems partly from the pitfalls of autoethnographic studies. I also sketch how these pitfalls might be overcome and how doing so and adopting the principle of 'accountability for reasonableness' might help to tackle bad leadership.

Turning Bad Leaders into Good Leaders: Diminishing the Theory X Style

“…The study is qualitative in nature, with data acquired through interviews with "victims" of poor leadership. Ethnographic studies are the most effective method for correctly portraying bad leadership [24,25], and the stories are typically delivered by someone who has personally experienced bad leadership.…”

Autoritarismo, resistencia y acoso laboral en la academia del siglo XXI: rostros ¿nuevos? de una vieja exclusión / Authoritarianism, resistance and mobbing in the 21st century academy: New? faces of an old exclusion

“…Resulta interesante cómo destaca la presencia de autoetnografías de profesionales y académicos en este ámbito de estudios, seguramente porque las personas en situaciones de este tipo se hallan de hecho en una posición privilegiada -paradójicamente-para pensar sobre un fenómeno de tan difícil abordaje, desde un lugar no solo encarnado sino, también, absolutamente autorizado y legitimado por la propia experiencia biográfica, cubriéndose esos huecos que señalan Allison et al (2011) entre el "alto nivel" de la comunidad académica y los "bajos pantanos" en la práctica real de la gente de carne y hueso (cf. también Deckers, 2020).…”