The importance of context: Qualitative research and the study of leadership

The use of qualitative research in the study of leadership is growing and its impact on the field is beginning to be felt. This article outlines some of the advantages of qualitative investigations of leadership and reports the results of an investigation of police leadership in England in which a qualitative approach was employed. Drawing on ideas from the New Leadership approach, data deriving from semi-structured interviews with a sample of police officers were analyzed in terms of concepts deriving from typical New Leadership findings. While many findings were consistent with New Leadership approaches, some important divergences emerged too. For example, charisma emerged as much less prominent in notions of what makes an effective leader than might have been expected from New Leadership research; by contrast, instrumental leadership was far more pervasive in police officers' thinking as central to effective leadership. The reasons for such findings are speculated upon, particularly with respect to the sensitivity to context that is a feature of qualitative research.