Falling from a Calling: Entitlement and the Social (De)Construction of Leader Identity

Abstract

For much of my life I thought God and I were partners, and I was the senior partner. I freely admit that I have a colossal ego, and I have been so convinced that I am literally on a mission from God that I have often acted like a man with a messiah complex (Meredith & Doyle, 2012: 244).IntroductionThe turgid declaration shown above was made by James Meredith, the first known African American student to enroll at the University of Mississippi (Eagles, 2009). In recounting his life story, Meredith repeatedly describes his struggle for educational equality (and against White supremacy) as a "mission from God" (e.g., Meredith & Doyle, 2012: 10) and a "divine responsibility" (e.g., Meredith, 1966: 214). With the current upsurge of interest on callings (Dik & Duffy, 2012), we argue that an examination of the case of a historic leader whose belief and identity were underpinned by a sense of calling is warranted.Although research on the concept of being called to some meaningful undertaking has proliferated in recent years, scholars have largely ignored the potential failings that could also be associated with a sense of calling (Berkelaar & Buzzanell, 2015). Calls for studies that go beyond only positive frames are beginning to appear in the literature (e.g., Duffy & Dik, 2013). Specifically, Berkelaar and Buzzanell (2015: 16) recently argued for more focus on the problematic outcomes that might be associated with calling and the potential "shortcomings" associated with called individuals.In addition, calling can be an integral part of one's sense of identity (Dobrow, 2004), particularly leader identity (Markow & Klenke, 2005), because "leadership is perhaps best understood as identity construction" (Karp & Helgo, 2009: 892). Yet, while research has shown a connection between calling and identity the concepts have been related "differently by different theorists, and there seems to be disagreement on whether calling precedes identity or identity precedes calling" (Markow, 2007: 32).In any event, accepting the call to lead such a personally profound undertaking, and receiving the concomitant status associated with it, carries the risk of an excessive sense of entitlement (see Naumann, Minsky, & Sturman, 2002). Unfortunately, the extant research on entitlement is also inconsistent, undervalued in leadership inquiries beyond a trait perspective (Tomlinson, 2013), and missing from leader identity construction studies. Conducting documentary and archival research of James Meredith's historic integration of the University of Mississippi, we discovered that Meredith believed he had been called to the struggle for equality, eventually internalizing a leader identity consistent with his calling. However, we argue his entitlement beliefs ultimately undermined his leadership identity and inhibited his ability to effectively sustain the pursuit of that call. Accordingly, we analyzed the case of James Meredith to further explore the relationship between calling, leader identity, and entitlement.Historical ApproachNumerous researchers have endorsed the use of narrative studies to further explore processes of leader/follower exchange (e.g., Novicevic et al., 2011; Shamir, 2011) and identity construction (e.g., DeRue & Ashford, 2010; Humphreys et al., in press). Such elucidations from case studies can be particularly valuable when attempting to craft conceptual frameworks (de Jong, Higgins, & van Driel, 2015; Ketokivi & Choi, 2014; Morgan, 2012; Pane Haden, Diaz, Humphreys, & Hayek, 2013).Our historical method of researching the calling, beliefs, and outcomes associated with James Meredith's leadership involved the process of examining documentary (e.g., books - biographical and autobiographical, newspapers) and archival (e.g., letters, telegrams) data. Examinations of contextualized texts may allow researchers to uncover discernible undercurrents of leader beliefs (Shamir & Eilam, 2005) and identities (Hassard, 2012) and develop appropriate meanings from notable excerpts (Bevir, 2012). …