What does leadership and followership mean in a post-1992 university business school?

The purpose of this research study is to evaluate what leadership and followership means in a Post-1992 University Business School. The focus of the research study is in the areas of transformational leadership, followership and distributed leadership within three English post-1992 university business schools. The research proceeds from the perspective of exploring leadership through qualitative methodology and constructivist analysis. The majority of respondents’ reported the perception that they did not experience transformational leadership. Furthermore, the respondents reported a propensity by those in management posts to approach complex leadership and followership situations with more controls and reporting systems, and /or as critical events requiring major staff restructuring and redundancies. Whereby the cases study managers perceived themselves unable to resist what the system required and/or were compelled to impose control measures. On the basis of the findings, what is required is a more inclusive academic community. Within a complex knowledge based environment, such as a business school, individuals might be both leaders and followers at different times. The research indicates that blended leadership, which is consultative and distributed, will encourage more collegiate engagement and thereby promote a climate within which each person can contribute to the effective leadership of the institutions concerned