Leadership and governance

Abstract

This chapter examines the concept of leadership, in the context of governance, inthird sector organizations. The major difficulty with the governance perspective is the lack of clarity over what constitutes effective governance. There is a lack of precise operational definitions for implementation in third sector organizations. This is compounded by the contested nature of what constitutes leadership. There is a literature on leadership which portrays the leader as a heroic figure. There is also a literature which conflates leadership with management. Amidst this complexity, this chapter advances the case for more subtle forms of leadership in the governance of charities. In this chapter the concepts of aspirational and substantive leadership are offered as such forms of leadership. This proposal is based on case study research which is reported on in this chapter. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010.