Evolutionary Perspectives on Leadership, Emotion and Organizational Change

Abstract

Successful organizational change is often the result of good leadership. However, consensus on what good leadership means is scarcely discernible in the field. There remain several schools of thought with their paradigmatic interpretations. In this chapter, I explore and discuss the evolutionary perspective, which has developed within several areas of organization research in general, however, it remains alien to our understanding of organizational change. Specifically, the chapter asks how through the lens of evolution, leader–follower interactions in a change management context, are influenced by emotion at individual and group levels. Knowledge in this area is still developing and stands to benefit from an evolution perspective.