Chapter 9: The Nature of Relational Leadership

This chapter begins with a very long quote from Ellen Berscheid. The quote is from an article in American Psychologist. The main summery of the long quote is that behavior influences the context of relationships more than most people expect. This view is shared by many people, many people are interested in these views because relationships are central to our social lives. How do you think that relationships are affected by the different behaviors that people bring to relationships?

Chapter 9 also focuses on 2 leadership views. These topics are, Leader-Follower Relationships: Postpositive view & Rationality in Leadership: Constructionist Views.

In the Leader-Follower Relationships: Postpositive view, the key points are that followers are vital for this process to work. It is an interpersonal process where leaders provide resources in order to help the group with goal achievement. In this process leaders also encourage loyalty and trust.

Rationality in Leadership: Constructionist Views, this view uses a different theory of knowledge, social constructionism, to consider the meaning of leadership relationships. This view uses approaches that are qualitative and inductive. The lens that this view is seen through is more social and cultural instead of a psychological approaches that are commonly used in leadership studies. Relational leader scholars in this view shift attention from a single dyad as a point of interest to structures of relationships.

What view do you prefer to follow? What view do you feel would be more successful? Have you ever seen either of these views in action?