Existentialism and Leadership: A Response to John Lawler with Some Further Thoughts

Abstract

As the title indicates this article aims to explore and develop some of the issues introduced by John Lawler's recent article for this journal on existentialism and leadership. The intention is to offer further insight into how existentialist ideas and principles can be used to invigorate and reorientate research into leadership. Thus, after an initial re-examination of some of the concepts introduced by Lawler, attention turns to some new themes, including nothingness, being-for-others and bad faith, before subsequently demonstrating their application to a number of fundamental concerns associated with debates on leadership, including trait theory, the laissez-faire ‘style’, following, strategic choice and research methodology.