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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PUBLIC LEADERSHIP : Navigating three faces of decentred leadership in the UK Parliament
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Purpose – The Westminster Parliament is multifaceted, lacks cohesion and collective direction, appearing at
times to challenge the very notion of a structured public institution itself. Within an environment with little
collective identity, understanding who leads in the UKParliament is challenging; there are multiple, contestable
sites of leadership and governance. The purpose of this article is to explore the understudied concept of
legislative leadership, to better understand what goes on inside the legislature. The author presents a decentred
and nuanced disaggregation of “leadership as practice” in parliament, examining three faces of legislative
leadership.
Design/methodology/approach – Interpretive approaches to studying legislatures have presented new
impetus to research in this area and the author utilises such anti-foundationalism. The article draws on
ethnographic research into “everyday practices”, conducted during an academic fellowship in the UK
Parliament from 2016 to 2019, which involved privileged access to the parliamentary estate. The data used
include observations, shadowing and elite interviews collected during the fellowship.
Findings – By looking at the legislature from the inside, the author can better understand elite behaviour. This
helps to explain motives, daily pressures and performative skills deployed in displays of autonomous,
decentred leadership. The legislative leadership the author observed was atomised and could be stretched to
accommodate the incumbent office holder. There were multiple relationships both formally constituted and
informally constructed, but little collaborative or consensus leadership.
Originality/value – This article fulfils an identified need to study leadership in legislatures – and in particular
key elites – from the inside.
Mark Bennister - Personal Name
NONE
Text
ENGLISH
EMERALD INSIGHT
2021
ENGLAND
ILMU PEMERINTAHAN
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APA Citation
Mark Bennister. (2021).INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PUBLIC LEADERSHIP : Navigating three faces of decentred
leadership in the UK Parliament.(Electronic Thesis or Dissertation). Retrieved from https://localhost/etd