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Since the dawn of leadership research, generations of scholars have looked at the topic through the lenses of leader personalities and traits, their behaviour, the situation they are in and their relations with co-workers. Same as with ideology waves in managerial discourse and though sailing under different flags, many of the above “classical” foci reverberate in “modern” organisational literature. The authors argue, however, that relatively little effort has been put into what we label as “organisational embeddedness of leadership” (OEL). The authors here focus on the role of institutionalising leadership within the setting of “poly-contextual” organisational frameworks.

Addressing the ambiguity of previous OEL research with fresh primary data from Germany, the authors present a clear-cut five-dimensional, 15-items construct. The authors’ empirical validation rests on (1) two independent qualitative studies and (2) three independent quantitative investigations computing exploratory (N = 61) and confirmatory (N = 172) factor analysis as well as a regression analysis (N = 131).

Structural equation modelling results indicate a single-factor model with five sub-dimensions consisting of leadership training and career development, leadership alignment, evaluation and feedback, implementation of employee interviews and supporting resources for leadership.

This work contributes to a broader understanding of “leadership emergence and development” (LED) from an organisational perspective. The limitations of the present article call for a lively debate on OEL and may illuminate some promising future research avenues.