Safeguarding the dignity of leadership

Julia Romanowska

Chapter 4 in Leadership, Art, and Responsibility, 2026, pp 21-23 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter further examines the profound mismatch between the inherent complexity of leadership and the oversimplified ideals that dominate contemporary leadership development. Against normative models, behavioural taxonomies, and prescriptive formulas, it argues that attempts to define “good leadership” through standardised traits or scientific doctrines distort the lived reality leaders must navigate. Drawing on Arendt, Ricœur, Aristotle, and Grint, it contends that practical action cannot be governed by abstract theory: the human world is shifting, unsettled, and marked by ambiguity. Leadership therefore requires phronesis – practical wisdom grounded in lived experience and moral judgement – rather than the mechanical application of learned routines. The chapter critiques the pedagogical values embedded in current leadership programmes, which often foster illusions of mastery, reinforce defensive postures, and obscure the ethical weight of responsibility. To safeguard leadership dignity, leaders must cultivate vigilance towards the dangers inherent in power, a felt relation to the Other, and the courage to act as present and answerable subjects in an unpredictable world. If leadership is to honour human dignity, leadership education must be reimagined. It must move beyond behavioural instruction and create conditions for leaders to encounter the world as it is – in its complexity and demand. Such an approach calls for a transformative pedagogy capable of stirring imagination and ethical responsiveness. Only through existential experience can leaders undertake the inner work that mature responsibility requires. The chapter concludes by turning towards the Shibboleth experiment in response to the need for a pedagogy that engages reality and fosters ethical encounter.

Keywords: Leadership Dignity; Leadership Complexity; Human Complexity; Phronesis; Limits of Theory in Practice; Power Dynamics; Ethical Responsibility; Leadership Pedagogy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781049403991
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781049404004.00010 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:25801_4

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().