The making of a leader and of leadership : the analysis of the transformation processes inside three large organizations

La recherche porte sur l’analyse de la fabrication du leader et du leadership et vise à comprendre les étapes organisationnelles permettant de développer ce processus. Leader et leadership ont été abondamment traités en sciences de gestion. L’avènement d’un nouvel environnement, obligeant les organisations à se transformer, en a fait un enjeu stratégique. Celui-ci a conduit à l’émergence d’un nouveau paradigme depuis 2000. Ce nouveau courant s’appuie sur un renouvellement des études empiriques, une approche plus ouverte et des disciplines variées (psychologie, mathématiques et neurosciences). Ses apports structurent les études autour de deux axes clés : la distinction entre leader et leadership et la capacité d’une organisation à fabriquer ces attributs chez l’individu. Notre recherche s’inscrit dans ce paradigme avec une idée force : ce type de fabrication passe par des processus de transformation, notamment identitaires, qu’il convient, pour les entreprises, d’explorer davantage et de manière plus dynamique. Le dispositif mis en place établit une grille d’analyse mobilisant différents courants de recherche afin d’améliorer la compréhension de la fabrication du leader et du leadership. Ce cadre souligne les effets produits par, et sur, trois principaux champs contextuels : individu (Hughes), organisation (Giddens) et environnement (Emery et Trist). Il fait l’objet d’une transposition originale en sciences de gestion qui souligne la plasticité identitaire individuelle et la récursivité du phénomène étudié. L’analyse empirique s’appuie sur une étude de cas multiple de trois grandes organisations qui partagent une pratique managériale volontariste de développement du leader et du leadership, dont l’institution militaire, berceau de ces notions. Les conclusions soulignent l’existence d’un processus de co-création du leader et du leadership, fruit d’interactions entre environnement, organisation et individu. Ces flux transformatifs vivants répondent à ce qui est théorisé comme un agencement inter-contextuel et conduit à des préconisations managériales structurant la fabrication du leader et du leadership.The research focuses on the analysis of the making of a leader and of leadership and aims at understanding the steps that allow large organizations to develop this process.Leader and leadership have been extensively discussed in management sciences. With the rise of a new environment requiring organizations to transform themselves, these notions have become a strategic challenge. This challenge has led to the emergence of a new paradigm of leadership in management sciences since the 2000s. This new stream, particularly embodied by the work of David Day (2000), is based on a renewal of empirical studies and on an approach more open to various disciplines such as psychology, mathematics and neuroscience. That current has contributed to the structuring of the field of studies on leader and leadership. Research increasingly focuses on the essential distinction between leader and leadership and on the organizations’ role in the making of these attributes within the individual. Our research fits into this paradigm by adding one idea: this type of making involves multiple transformation processes, including identity dimensions, which companies ought to explore more actively.The purpose of the research design is to establish an analytical framework that mobilizes different streams of research in order to help understand the making of a leader and of leadership. This framework will highlight the effects of, and on, three main contextual fields: the individual (Hughes), the organization (Giddens)and the environment (Emery and Trist). This is the subject of an original transposition in management sciences which puts the emphasis on the individual identity plasticity (Hughes) and recursivity of the phenomenon. The empirical analysis will be based on the multiple case study of three major organizations that share a proactive management of leader and leadership development, including the Army, the birthplace of such notions. The findings point out the existence of a process of co-creation of a leader and leadership, which is the result of interactions between the environment, the organization and the individual. These transformative live flows are theorised as an inter-context assemblage. This will lead to managerial recommendations for enabling the making of a leader and the leadership