%0 Journal Article
%T Both loved and despised: Uncovering a process of collective contestation in leadership identification
%A Chad Seifried
%A David R. Marshall
%A John Humphreys
%A Milorad M. Novicevic
%J Organization
%@ 1461-7323
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1350508418812567
%X Our critical examination of James Meredith¡¯s leadership during the racial integration of higher education in the early 1960s reveals an important, missing companion to social endorsement in the leadership construction process: social contestation. Through the lens of moral conviction theory and using a combined ANTi-History/Microhistorical method, we analyzed over 250 letters written to James Meredith by opponents undergoing a process of social identification leading to collective hate and opposition of Meredith¡¯s defiance to racial norms. Their shared moral conviction that what Meredith was doing was ¡®evil¡¯ worked in conjunction with the collective social endorsement of supporters to cement Meredith as a polemic leader of the racial integration movement and affect his leadership style. Therefore, leadership construction processes triggered by actors in defiance are underscored by both shared social endorsement and contestation
%K Historical approach
%K leadership identification
%K socially contested leadership
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1350508418812567