ASL TALK. An Investigation of Authentic Spiritual Leadership (ASL): A Discursive Study

This study explores how a global network of people construct an idea(l) of leadership, by combining authenticity, spirituality and leadership in (con-)text of current socio-cultural movements, CSR, 'ethical profit', and stages of leadership history. The concept of a unity of authenticity, spirituality and leadership is highly controversial and has attracted considerable critical scrutiny, which makes it interesting to examine how members of this community manage their accounts of ASL. With multiple qualitative methods this study investigates (self-proclaimed) texts of 'ASL' ('ASL talk'), and compares the texts on a content level to the claims of critics. The research was carried out from an 'insider's' perspective (which has both advantages and disadvantages) and explored the discursive work of members through in-depth interviews. The aim was not to scrutinise ASL as a religious concept or theory, but to examine it as an idea which people share with one another. Thus, this inductive study of the concept of ASL explores what holds a group of people together on a belief level.