Carlisle Housing Association Ltd (CHA), created in December 2002 as a consequence of the transfer of Carlisle City Council's housing stock (7,200 properties), is located some 12…
Abstract
Carlisle Housing Association Ltd (CHA), created in December 2002 as a consequence of the transfer of Carlisle City Council's housing stock (7,200 properties), is located some 12 miles from the Scottish border in North Cumbria, in an area with a local population of more than 100,000 people. CHA is a subsidiary of the Riverside Group. CHA aims to deliver a sustainable community alarm service that aids the independent living options for its customers, with a focus on health and social care provision in the area.The purpose of this article is to set out the evolutionary process undertaken to develop the CHA community alarm service, rather than to explain the operational aspects of assistive technology. It aims to identify the co‐ordinated, person‐centred approach we have developed to assist vulnerable individuals to embark on a journey that fulfils their aspirations to remain as safe and independent as possible in a familiar environment.
This paper seeks to explore a critique of the limitations of mainstream leadership research and publications and offers a critical management analysis through drawing on a…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to explore a critique of the limitations of mainstream leadership research and publications and offers a critical management analysis through drawing on a feminist reading of leadership in organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
There has recently been witnessed a growing interest in the promotion of effective leadership within both organizational studies literature and organisational policy as the route to ensuring employee commitment and enhanced organisational performance and the achievement of ever demanding goals and targets. This turn to leadership is represented in both an upsurge of research studies and a proliferation in the promotion of leadership as the organisational panacea. An analysis of the literature on leadership was undertaken, giving due consideration to mainstream and more critical accounts in relation to illustrations drawn from the UK National Health Service (NHS).
Findings
This paper explores mainstream literature on leadership and finds it wanting, in terms of its failure to deliver a common understanding of the concept, in its generally uncritical accounts, and its inability to expose the androcentric nature of the core assumptions within hegemonic discourses of leadership. Drawing on critical feminist readings in relation to the UK NHS, a more critical account of leadership is presented.
Practical implications
Greater awareness is required for the adoption of culturally sensitive and locally‐based approaches that take account of individuals' experiences, identities and power relations and that allows for the presence of a range of masculine and feminine workplace behaviours.
Originality/value
This paper provides an overview of the dominant themes within the literature on leadership as they relate to the UK NHS, and presents a feminist critique of the more subtle ways in which notions of leadership in organisations fail to consider their potential for bias.