The silhouette of leadership: James bond and miss moneypenny

Abstract

This chapter reflects on the way images of heroic leaders from popular culture can be used within organisations. I link my ethnographic data to some extracts from Ian Fleming’s '007' novels to suggest why Bond’s heroic style of action-focused leadership acts as a template for organisational heroics. I also highlight the implications of Miss Moneypenny’s role as the heroic leader’s ‘trusty sidekick’ (Maccoby, 2000). I suggest that figures from popular culture, like Bond and Moneypenny, can act as ‘leadership silhouettes’, resurrecting heroic models of leadership within post-heroic workplace structures.