Leadership Vistas: From the Constraints of the Behavioral Sciences to Emancipation through the Humanities

Leadership studies, as represented by the two principal journals in the field --Leadership Quarterly and The Journal of Leadership Studies -- has been contrained primarily within the "behavioral sciences" and, more particularly, within the disciplines of psychology/social psychology and business/management. This article proposes consideration of emancipatory perspectives on leadership offered by the humanities and, more particularly, by literature/literary studies. Using neo-institutional theory as a means of framing the discussion, it argues that leadership studies has become embedded, institutionalized enterprise and that the humanities may provide one means of deinstitutionalizing and broadening the field.