The ‘Corbyn Phenomenon’: Media Representations of Authentic Leadership and the Discourse of Ethics Versus Effectiveness

Marian Iszatt-White (), Andrea Whittle (), Gyuzel Gadelshina () and Frank Mueller ()
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Marian Iszatt-White: Lancaster University Management School
Andrea Whittle: Newcastle University Business School
Gyuzel Gadelshina: Northumbria University, Newcastle Business School
Frank Mueller: Newcastle University Business School

Journal of Business Ethics, 2019, vol. 159, issue 2, No 15, 535-549

Abstract: Abstract Whilst the academic literature on leadership has identified authenticity as an important leadership attribute, few studies have examined how authentic leadership is evaluated in naturally occurring discourse. This article explores how authentic leadership was characterised and evaluated in the discourse of the British press during the 2015 Labour Party leadership election—won, against the odds, by veteran left-winger Jeremy Corbyn. Using membership categorisation analysis, we show that the media discourse about authentic leadership was both ambiguous and ambivalent. In their representation of authentic leadership, we found that a discourse of ‘ethical’ leadership was played out in tension with a discourse of ‘effective’ leadership. We propose that this complex and contradictory discursive landscape is also relevant in business contexts where ‘ethical’ leaders are subjected to praise for their virtues but also criticism for their ineffectiveness. Future research could usefully study how ‘ethical’ leaders in different settings can be subject to competing evaluations when their ethical values are discursively contrasted to expectations concerning what it takes to be an ‘effective’ leader.

Keywords: Authentic leadership; Ethical leadership; Effectiveness; Media discourse; Membership categorisation analysis; Political leaders; Jeremy Corbyn; British Labour Party (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-018-3838-x

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