The Problem of Cultural Leadership: The Lessons of the Dead Leaders Society and A New Definition of Leadership

Abstract

This article traces the intellectual journey of a class of leadership students as they explored the relationship between culture and leadership through the analysis of historical scenarios. In particular, their study of the role elements of the popular culture played in the "adaptive work" of several subgroups of society in the 1920s challenges traditional conceptions of leadership. Can there be such a thing as "cultural leadership?" The author uses the students' work as a point of departure for a new and more expansive definition of leadership.