Understanding Leadership through Natural Sciences

A Fresh Perspective
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-35320-1
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 202 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

This book offered an exploration of how scientific principles can illuminate and redefine leadership. It delves into the interdisciplinary nexus of leadership and the natural sciences, examining how concepts from physics, biology, and systems thinking can enrich our understanding of leadership.

It begins by exploring the contributions of Michael Polanyi to leadership in the sciences and progresses to innovative metaphors like fluid dynamics and folding/unfolding to describe leadership phenomena. The book also investigates the role of boundaries—spatial, temporal, and conceptual—in leadership systems, drawing on examples from literature, such as The Wizard of Oz, to illustrate these ideas. Further, it ventures into altered states of consciousness, such as dreams and poetry, as sources of leadership insight, and culminates in a discussion of metaphysics and organizing principles grounded in multiplicity.

With rigor and imagination, the book invites readers to consider leadership as both a scientific and philosophical phenomenon, offering examples, metaphors, and frameworks that challenge traditional disciplinary silos. It is intended for scholars, researchers, and advanced students in leadership studies, organizational psychology and social psychology.

Zielgruppe

Academic, Postgraduate, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Harter, Nathan W.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Psychologische Disziplinen Wirtschafts-, Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Allgemeine Psychologie Sozialpsychologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword by Adrianna DeSantis, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Ph.D. candidate) Introduction to the book 1. Leadership in the sciences: Contributions of Michael Polanyi to the study of leadership with Molly Camaioni 2. Birth of a metaphor: How is leadership like a rainbow? 3. The extent to which leadership exhibits fluid dynamics: Some preliminary considerations 4. Leadership for a system’s boundaries: Imagining the forms by which we live 5. The topology of Oz: Boundaries, paths, and bubbles 6. Leadership as a participation in folding … and unfolding 7. Dreams, drugs, madness, poetry, and the underworld: Seedbed of the resistance 8. A shared metaphysics grounded in multiplicity: Organizing principles

Über Autor(innen)

Nathan W. Harter is a Professor Emeritus from the Department of Leadership and American Studies at Christopher Newport University, USA.