The Art of Leadership : A contemporary perception of leadership in postmodern societies

Abstract: The 21st century imposes totally new challenges on businesses, different from anything they have experienced before, due to a very high degree of complexity and uncertainty. These transformations, in eco-political as well as in social spheres, imply a new conceptualization of leadership. We provide an understanding of leadership based on art, since we regard art as a medium incorporating unaccountable aspects of human life. This unaccountable dimension moreover, is of crucial importance in organizations nowadays, in order to provide the working atmosphere people need in order to excel at work. Thus, leaders have to become aware of the quality of relationship they create based on social interaction with the people they lead. What might be crucial elements composing the art of leadership in this relationship is well researched by a number of qualitative dialogues with experts in the domain of leadership, grounded in specific deepening literature study and thoroughly depicted in this thesis.