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Romanticizing Leadership: a Historical and Cultural Critique University of San Diego Digital USD Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1997 Romanticizing Leadership: A Historical and Cultural Critique Elisa Maureen Sandra Carlson EdD University of San Diego Follow this and additional works at: https://digital.sandiego.edu/dissertations Part of the Leadership Studies Commons Digital USD Citation Carlson, Elisa Maureen Sandra EdD, "Romanticizing Leadership: A Historical and Cultural Critique" (1997). Dissertations. 626. https://digital.sandiego.edu/dissertations/626 This Dissertation: Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Digital USD. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital USD. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ROMANTICIZING LEADERSHIP: A HISTORICAL & CULTURAL CRITIQUE by Elisa Maureen Sandra Carlson A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education University of San Diego 1997 Dissertation Committee Steven Gelb, PhD., Director Bill Piland, PhD. Mary Jo Abascal-Hildebrand, Ed. D. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ROMANTICIZING LEADERSHIP: A HISTORICAL & CULTURAL CRITIQUE CARLSON, ELISA MAUREEN SANDRA. Ed. D. University of San Diego. 1997. pp. 350 Director Steven Gelb, Ph.D. Romanticism, a cultural and intellectual ideology of the late 18th and early 19th century, left a historical legacy of ecstasy and disaster upon subsequent generations. Manifestations of neo-romanticism are evident in many areas of contemporary culture. These modem manifestations, which include an infusion of the spiritual into everyday life, pantheistic adoration of nature, glorification of the self, fascination with the irrational, focus on the power of the imagination, subjugation of the individual to the common good, and apocalyptic hope for a new world, are influencing theories and practices of leadership. This research set out to find out whether leadership studies was benefiting from these neo-romantic influences, through the use of historical and cultural criticism. The historical roots of romanticism were identified for each theme and the historical path of that particular idea traced to the present day. The current manifestation of each idea was then examined in light of its interpretation and use within the field of leadership studies. For example, the Romantic focus on the immanence of God has evolved into a contemporary tendency to find spirituality infused in all aspects of the world. Leadership scholars have been exploring spirituality as an essential part of leadership. The romantic pantheistic focus on nature has translated into the tendency for leadership authors to appeal to "new science" ideas for support of their theories. Finally, each romantic idea was evaluated for its impact on current views of leadership. The application of neo-romantic ideas to the field of leadership studies was shown to be problematic. The leadership literature is jargon-infested, lacks clear definitions, purports to be science but is pseudoscientific, promotes one totalizing worldview, uncritically assumes that worldview is correct, covertly and manipulatively attempts to Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. convert others to that worldview, suppresses the individual, violates personal rights and religious freedom, idolizes the group andby proscribing dissent, establishes a culture predisposed to fascist and totalitarian behavior. The author made recommendations for minimizing the negative impact of neo-romanticism on the field of leadership studies and provided some practical recommendations for leadership studies in the future. The findings of this study suggest that the field of leadership studies would do well to abandon romantic conceptions of leadership and engage in more rigorous and disciplined scholarly inquiry. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Elisa Maureen Sandra Carlson Copyright 1997 All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEDICATION To my husband, foremost, and now Elliott, too. You both are my joy. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Acknowledgments are intended to give credit and thanks to those who have played a role in making this happen. In many respects this work is an act of grace, an impossible task, by virtue of the demands of the work itself compared to the schedule that I needed to keep as a wife, student, principal, part-time consultant, part-time university instructor and then, not soon after, a mother as well. The work was impossible, too large, too difficult and beyond my intellectual capacity; yet, it needed to be done. Couple that with personal circumstances that were unexpected and trying, and indeed, the task became even more difficult. Nevertheless, it has come to fruition, by an act of grace. There are many individuals that deserve my thanks and gratitude. I can not list them all but there are some that I must mention. First, I would like to thank my parents for being the best parents I could possibly ask for and encouraging me in all my endeavours. To my mother, I am grateful for her unending love. To my father, I am grateful for his inspiration and advice as one who charted this path before me. Second, I would like to thank my chair, Dr. Steven Gelb, for believing in this kind of unusual dissertation. I appreciated his excellent editorial advice and reading suggestions. His commitment to disciplined inquiry and rigorous scholarship is both admirable and needed, particularly in the field of leadership studies. It is also evident in the insistence that this work be academically sound. I am grateful for that and I also believe that my selection of him as chair was more than fortuitous. I also want to thank my committee members, Dr. Bill Piland and Dr. Mary Jo Abascal-Hildebrand, for their patience and endurance with this particularly long work. I appreciated their feedback and positive comments but most of all their flexibility and willingness to respond quickly when time became of the essence. I thank Dean DeRoche and Dr. Ray Latta for creating this program and thereby making this work possible. Thank you, as well, to Dr. Debbie Wright, for holding the pieces of the program together. I am also thankful to my many professors and appreciated the opportunity to learn from each of them. I thank those in my cohort group, some of them ironically inspired this work, for that I am grateful. Thank you to Sandra for having humour in the midst of sometimes difficult, crazy and unbelievable circumstances and for sharing that humour with me. I am thankful for Elliott, my son, for providing me with much needed relief, laughter and joy. I never knew being a mother could be so wonderful. He provided me with the motivation to complete this just so I could spend more time with him. Finally, I want to thank my husband, John, for his unending support, assistance, encouragement and love. At various times he has served as cook, errand runner, secretary, organizer and research assistant. He shielded me from the onslaught of everyday life and its various demands so that I might dedicate myself to the voluminous reading and writing that was necessary to complete this task. I felt a distinct call to do this work and he honoured that call. Love knows no bounds and his is boundless. I am grateful to him. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication Acknowledgments 1. Romanticizing Leadership 1 2. Spirituality in Leadership 31 3. Leadership & the "New Science" 70 4. The Self in Leadership 95 5. Leadership & the Irrational 139 6. Leadership & the Imagination 184 7. Leadership & the Common Good 226 8. Leadership & the Future 265 9. Conclusion 309 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 1: Romanticizing Leadership "Ideas have consequences." Richard M. Weaver1 Romanticism, a cultural and intellectual ideology of the late 18th and early 19th century, infused the lives of its believers and left a historical legacy of ecstasy and disaster on subsequent generations. Articulated by the romantic poets and the infamous political philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, romanticism focused on the supernatural, intuition, feelings, imagination, nature, the general will and apocalyptic ways of understanding the world and responding to it. Contemporary manifestations of romanticism are unfolding in our postmodern times. These modem manifestations, heralded by the celebration of the unconscious, the divinity of the self, the pantheistic adoration of nature, the fascination with the "new science," the focus on the irrational, the subjugation of the individual to the common good and the futuristic hope for a new world paradigm, are influencing our views, theories and practices of leadership. Presently, there is no literature that looks directly at the influence of neo-romanticism on leadership nor that critiques that influence. There is a great deal of literature on leadership itself and a great deal of literature that deals with romanticism but none, at least that I have found, that examines directly at the link between the
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