Leadership in an ambiguous context: What public leader behaviour looks like

Leadership has received increasing research attention in public management, yet a contextualised understanding of what leaders do and how they see their roles remains elusive. This issue is relevant though, especially in... [ view full abstract ]

Leadership has received increasing research attention in public management, yet a contextualised understanding of what leaders do and how they see their roles remains elusive. This issue is relevant though, especially in relation to public leaders, who face a context that is full of ambiguity, producing competing demands that complicate performance in public organisations. How leaders behave in such a context is the focus of this empirical study, whereby leadership is viewed to be more-encompassing than managing subordinates. Based on interviews with leaders at Dutch universities (n = 19), it is examined how leaders see their leadership roles and how they behave in light of competing demands in their environment. By conceptualising leader behaviour repertoires while explicitly considering the ambiguous context of public leaders, this study contributes to the development of leadership theory. First analyses show that leaders employ a variety of behaviours, which shows the relevance of broadening the focus on leader behaviour.