Kaleidoscopic Leadership: Emerging Perspectives and Future Directions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.19245/25.05.of.07.11.25.1Keywords:
Leadership, Review, multilevelAbstract
Leadership remains one of the most studied yet contested constructs in organizational research. This article examines leadership through a kaleidoscopic lens, reviewing theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches spanning across individual, dyadic, group, organizational, and institutional levels of analysis. Drawing on foundational theories of power, social exchange, social networks, paradox, and identity, we show how leadership has been conceptualized both as a personal attribute and as a relational, collective, and symbolic process. Our analysis highlights the proliferation of perspectives that, while illuminating distinct dimensions of the leadership construct, have too often evolved in isolation. After a brief discussion of these perspectives, we argue for the integration of theories, the adoption of multi-level lenses, and the use of multimethod approaches to capture leadership as a complex, socially embedded process. We conclude by outlining future research directions.
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