HVCC Leadership Series: Creative Control - Considering Context in Leadership
Most leadership research discusses leadership as if it occurs in a vacuum, even though leadership is shaped by organizational context. As a result, context is often treated as an afterthought rather than the stage on which leadership unfolds. Different research traditions describe “creative leadership” in vastly different ways—not because they disagree about psychology but because they study leaders in radically different organizational environments. In reality, organizational context produces distinct forms of creative leadership.
This session focuses on the work of Charalampos Mainemelis, who argues that leadership research often pretends leadership is universal when, in fact, context determines what leadership even is—especially in creative work. When we understand organizational context, we see that creative leadership does not reside in individuals. It lives in systems of relationships, roles and expectations. Different contexts produce different kinds of leadership, not simply different leader behaviors. Trying to generalize leadership without context is like trying to describe a dance without music.