Fictional Leaders: Heroes, Villans and Absent Friends

by Jonathan Gosling, Peter Villiers

Overview

Management theory is vague about the experience of leading. Success, power, achievement are discussed but less focus is given to negative experiences leaders faced such as loneliness or disappointment. This book addresses difficult-to-explore aspects of leadership through well-known works of literature drawing lessons from fictional leaders.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349444984
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	01/01/2013
Edition description:	1st ed. 2013
Pages:	261
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jonathan Gosling is Professor of Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter, UK, and has published articles in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Leadership, Management Learning and elsewhere. He advises companies, agencies and government departments across the world on their leadership-related issues. He is Fellow of the Windsor Leadership Trust and the Leadership Foundation, a member of the Advisory Board of the Defence Academy, co-director of the European Leadership Centre and director of Coaching Ourselves Inc.

Peter Villiers is a writer, lecturer and consultant with a wealth of practical experience in leadership and management development. He has served in the merchant navy, as a captain in the Royal Armoured Corps in Northern Ireland, Cyprus and Hong Kong and as the principal of a leading tutorial college. From 1986 to 2004 he was a senior tutor at the UK National Police Staff College, where his final position was as the head of human rights. He is a widely published author and has written textbooks, histories, guides, biographies and plays.

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors Introduction Xenophon and the Pursuit of Willing Obedience by Cyrus the Great; L.Mitchell Sharing the Secret - Joseph Conrad on Leadership at Sea; P.Villiers The Isolation of the Spirit - Captain Horatio Hornblower RN; S.Jones Leadership and Monomania: Herman Melville's Moby Dick; B.Sievers Nevil Shute - 'Pastoral'; D.Weir 'Things for fall apart' - Chinua Achebe; J.Gosling Leadership and Improvisation - 'A Bell for Adano' by John Hersey; N.Provizer The Silhouette of Leadership - James Bond and Miss Moneypenny; B.Hawkins 'A Wild Sheep Chase' - Haruki Murakami; C.Land, M.Sliwa & S.Spoelstra Leadership and Expectation - Thomas Pynchon; P.Pelzer & P.Case Leadership - 'The Madness of the Day' by Maurice Blanchot; H.Letiche & J-L.Moriceau Leadership and Dharma: The Indian Epics 'Ramayana' and 'Mahabharata' and Their Significance for Leadership Today; H.Verma The Leader as Poet: Tennyson, Whitman and Dickinson; B.Mossberg Leadership and Tradition: Rabindranath Tagore S.Kumar Leadership and Acceptability: Plato and the Odium of Truth; N.Harter Ten Great Works for Leadership Development; R.Adlam Index