Man oh man - looks like a leader to me!

Abstract

In this paper we consider the role played by the business press in shaping current understandings of leadership, and argue that despite the rhetoric of more consensual styles of leadership, an heroic image of leadership prevails. The images portrayed in this press not only reflect common images of leadership, they also constitute them (Alvesson and Skoldberg, 2000). Focusing on AFR BOSS magazine we conduct a close textual analysis of the cover pages. Through the application of selected theories of gender pertaining to the social construction of masculinity and of cultural and media studies of celebrity, we find that the front cover images and accompanying stories reinforce a rather questionable narrative of leadership as the terrain of the singular, heroic hegemonic male.