Post on 25-Dec-2015
Leadership and Equality
Stephen Reicher, University of St. Andrews, Scotlandsdr@st-andrews.ac.uk
Glasgow: September 28th 2010
Leaders Followers and Groups
Leadership is a ‘we’ relationship between leaders and
followers bound together by common category membership (social identity).
Leadership is a process of social identity management
Leaders must be one of us
The leader must reflect what makes ‘our’ group distinctive from other groupsLeaders must act for usThe leader must act in the interests of our group as opposed to him/herself or other groups
Leaders must achieve for usLeaders must embed identity in social reality. That is, they must be successful in terms of group priorities
The key to leadership: Doing it for us
Doing it for us
…we must put the mistakes of New Labour behind us… We started as the government of the windfall tax and the minimum wage and ended up defending bankers’ bonuses and.. embarrassed by our trade union links
when I was twelve years old the phone rang and we were told she had been assassinated by the South African secret service... Some people will wonder about why I got to care about politics. When something like that happens, what kid wouldn’t.
To return to power we must put the mistakes of New Labour behind us…We won’t get back into power again or sustain ourselves in power unless we create a genuine Labour movement again.
Prototypicality and social support
We are more likely to support, trust and be influenced by ingroup members.
We are more likely to put in effort to support the projects of leaders seen as ingroup
Much therefore depends upon how we define the group, who belongs to it and who best represents it
… and dropping out
NO ROLE NO ROLE MODELSMODELS
LOWER LOWER IDENTITYIDENTITYLACK of FITLACK of FIT
REDUCED REDUCED AMBITIONAMBITION
UNWILLING to UNWILLING to SACRIFICESACRIFICE
EXITEXIT
Cues to belonging
Images and symbols Timing of activities
Traditions Food and drink
Celebrations Built environment
Socialising Criteria for selection
Experience of others Literature
Institutional Identity Audit
A systematic analysis of institutional practices to determine what they communicate about who belongs, who ‘fits’ and who is best suited to
represent us.
A criterion against which all policies and practices are evaluated so as to generate increase
motivation, generate ambition and maximise the human resources available to the institution