Common sense leadership.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore in what way might the concept of common sense inform leadership action? The thesis takes as a starting point typical dictionary definitions of common sense and moves on to critically review related literature from, Delaney (2001), Gerber (2001), Lissack & Roos (2000), Rausch (2009), Zhao (2009) and gains an appreciation of the different aspects of common sense to understand how the implicit nature of common sense influences leadership actions within the context of a large family owned business. A description of Common Sense as something 'positive and desirable' (Fulton, 2006) whilst at that same time something taken for granted which offers the prospect of development according to Rausch (2009) and the possibility of an advanced form of Common Sense (Delaney, 2001) or Critical Common Sense (Watson, 2006) is also considered. The common sense literature is reviewed against the past theories of leadership and using Bryman's (2006) leadership framework the interconnecting elements of both strands of literature are pulled together to form a model of common sense leadership incorporating: trait, style, contingency, and new leadership.The model of common sense leadership integrates common sense with people management, the character and competence of the leader and the new leadership aspects of transformation, vision, and charisma. The research is undertaken predominantly using semi structured interviews and building on an 'interpretative and subjective' general analytical inductive methodology, it contributes to both theory and management practice by making more explicit an aspect of leadership often overlooked - a common sense approach.