Chapter 1. Introduction Cornelia Ilie and Stephanie Schnurr -- Chapter 2. Leadership and change management: Examining gender, cultural and “hero leader” stereotypes Janet Holmes.- Chapter 3. Taking the (heroic) leader out of leadership. The in situ practice of distributed leadership in decision-making talk Jonathan Clifton -- Chapter 4. Leaders in times of change: Stereotypes and counter-stereotypes of leadership discourse Cornelia Ilie -- Chapter 5. Leadership and culture: When stereotypes meet actual workplace practice Stephanie Schnurr, Angela Chan, Joelle Loew and Olga Zayts.- Chapter 6. Exploring leadership conceptualizations in semi-structured interviews from multiple perspectives Kevin Knight.- Chapter 7. Developing distributed leadership: Leadership emergence in a sporting context Nick Wilson.- Chapter 8. Freeing women political leaders from their gender stereotypes?: Reading UK newspaper texts against the grain Judith Baxter.- Chapter 9. Cracking the concrete ceiling in male-dominated societies: A tale of three “Presidentas” Diana Boxer, Lennie M. Jones & Florencia Cortés-Conde.– Chapter 10. Exploring leadership communication in the United Arab Emirates: Issues of culture and gender Catherine Nickerson and Valerie Priscilla Goby.- Chapter 11. Between performed persona and assigned identity categories: Stereotype as identity resource for Japanese business women in leadership positions Momoko Nakamura.This multidisciplinary volume brings together wide-ranging empirical research that goes behind the scenes of diverse organizations dealing with business, politics, law, media, education, and sports to unravel stereotypes of discursive leadership practices as they unfold in situ. It includes contributions that explore how leadership discourse is impacted by increasing pressures of “glocalisation” (the need to communicate across cultures and languages), “mediatisation” (leaving ubiquitous digital traces), standardization (with quality management programmes negotiating organizational procedures), mobility (endless fast-paced long distance synchronization) and acceleration (permanent co-adaption and change). The discussion of purposefully chosen case studies moves beyond questions of who is a leader and what leaders do, to how leadership stereotypes are being challenged in various communities of practice, and thereby making change possible. Cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approaches are used to get deeper insights into the competing, multi-voiced, controversial and complex identities and relationships enacted in leadership discourse practices. “This volume is a must-read for anyone interested in leadership discourse. Focusing on the under-researched area of stereotyping, it offers a fresh and much-needed perspective.” –Louise Mullany, Professor, Faculty of Arts, University of Nottingham, UK “A timely and highly recommendable contribution to the leadership field, clearly demonstrating the value of taking discourse seriously and exploring it in depth!” –Magnus Larsson, Associate Professor, Department of Organization Copenhagen Business School, Denmark “Cornelia Ilie and Stephanie Schnurr have edited an exciting volume with incisive analysis that grounds leadership in issues of power, context, meaning, and interaction process.” –Gail Fairhurst, Distinguished University Research Professor University of Cincinnati, USA.