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Leadership is seen everywhere in the organization, and is not necessarily the domain of individuals placed in formal roles or positions in an organization. This is a shift away from the traditional concept of leaders and followers as distinct individuals bound together by a chain of command (Carsten & Uhl-Bien, 2013). It is true that individuals placed in formal position of power would have greater access to resources, and could yield influence by either distributing or withdrawing resources and support to others (Oc & Bashur, 2013). Although followers may not necessarily have positional power, they can still yield considerable influence through their expertise and connections (Oc & Bashur, 2013). Their manipulation of information, their influence tactics, and their personal power can be used effectively to lead and influence change. Leadership is therefore a state of being that everyone can enter into irrespective of their position in the organization (Quinn, 1996). The emergence of such leadership is dependent on situational factors such as needs of others, threat to the group, as well as particular environmental conditions (Vught, 2006). This stream of thinking runs counter to the idea that leadership is the prerogative of a fixed few.

In this chapter, I look at how an aspiring leadership identity is created, and what narratives and discourses are involved. As stated earlier, I do not consider the leader identity to be the prerogative of those in formal positions of power. Even followers could have leader identity. Although most research on leadership and followership considers leaders and followers as static and non-transferrable, some of the recent works on …