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Leadership as an elite field: Scottish banking leaders and the crisis of 2007-2009

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Ron Kerr

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Abstract

This paper addresses the question of the apparent auto-destructive behaviour of the leaders of the Scottish banks in the period 2005—2008. We apply Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus and capital to a corpus of textual sources to identify how leaders of these organisations competed with each other for leadership capital. We therefore show, through analysis of a series of historically situated crises, how competition between senior banking leaders for positions of domination within the field of elite banking in Scotland, the UK and globally, eventually contributed to the destruction of the banks themselves as independent institutions. We believe that this Bourdieusian approach to leader—leader relations can offer some explanation of the apparently ‘irrational’ behaviours of the banking leaders in the economic crisis of 2005—2008.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Kerr R, Robinson S

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Leadership

Year: 2011

Volume: 7

Issue: 2

Pages: 153-175

Print publication date: 01/05/2011

ISSN (print): 1742-7150

ISSN (electronic): 1742-7169

Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1742715010394735

DOI: 10.1177/1742715010394735

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