LEADERSHIP AND C O RPO RATE STRATEG Y: TO WARD A C RITIC AL ANALYSIS David Knights* Glenn Morgan University of Manchester institute of Science and Technology The paper examines the increased interest among leadership writers in the issue of corporate strategy and corporate culture. Academic, consultant, and practitioner literature has increasingly focused on the way in which leadership constitutes effective organizations through shaping values and culture. This has led leadership studies away from the examination of the micro-processes of group formation with its concomitant problems of measurement and analysis and towards the consideration of the role of senior management in leadership. However, the paper rgues, that there has not yet been sufficient critical analysis of the role of leadership in these circumstances. It is argued that corporate leadership of this sort needs to be understood as a specific set of discourses and practices which has particular conditions of possibility. These are located in the changing nature of industry and management in the current era. It is argued that in order to advance, leadership studies need to problematize the discourse of ‘leaders’ themselves, rather than accepting them as adequate accounts of how organizations work. It is now commonplace in leadership studies to question what has been achieved within the field. Indeed Bryman (1986) argued that there is little consensus even with regard to a single definition of leadership. Meindl et al. (1985, p. 78) indicated how “the concept of leadership remains largely elusive and enigmatic.” While defending the field against the excesses of some of its critics, even Fiedler and House (1988, p. 88) concluded that “we do not yet have a single overarching theory of leadership, and we are not likely to achieve one for some time.” Others have been rather less sanguine in their judge- ments. For example, Bennis (1959, p. 259) claims that “probably more has been *Direct all correspondence to: David Knights, Manchester School of Management, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Manchester, England. Leadership Quarterly, 3(3), 171-190. Copyright @ 1992 by JAI Press Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISSN: 1048-9843