TY  - CHAP
AB  - Abstract Bill Clinton is exemplary of a new conception of leadership appropriate for the 21st century. In spite of his sexual proclivities (for which he received harsh criticism and impeachment proceedings) Clinton’s physicality signals an end of a Gnostic view of leadership that separates the knowing head from the rest of the body. We propose that 20th century manifestations of leadership are no longer appropriate for this age, and we illustrate this idea with the ‘reality’ television series Undercover Boss. Further, by exploring artist Peter Robinson’s installation The End of the Twentieth Century we claim that Clinton’s call for inclusivity, a ‘both–and’ approach that characterizes his late- and post-Presidential rhetoric, opens possibilities for alternative constructs that place the body at the heart of leadership. Our exploration of Clinton’s physicality is through his speech to the APEC business leaders in 1999, his commentary on the movie documentary The Hunting of the President and his speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. In each of these he reaches out to his audiences through physical and verbal gestures. He pleads for tolerance and understanding so that people may find commonalities among their flaws and differences. Through enacting the physical ‘doing’ of leadership in these instances, Bill Clinton offers an exemplar of re-locating leadership within its physical context.
VL  - 6
SN  - 978-1-78441-289-0, 978-1-78441-290-6/1479-3571
DO  - 10.1108/S1479-357120140000006008
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-357120140000006008
AU  - Bathurst Ralph
AU  - Messervy Anne
PY  - 2014
Y1  - 2014/01/01
TI  - Bill Clinton and the End of Leadership
T2  - The Physicality of Leadership: Gesture, Entanglement, Taboo, Possibilities
T3  - Monographs in Leadership and Management
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 199
EP  - 218
Y2  - 2024/04/20
ER  -