Napoleonic Leadership: A Study in Power

‘Whether you are studying leadership, or doing leadership, this is a rollicking good read, and a fabulously rich book.’ - Ken Parry, Professor of Leadership Studies and co-Director of the Deakin Leadership Centre, Australia


He came to France an immigrant and left an exile – but, in a career spanning just 35 years, he became general, consul and emperor. 

How did Napoleon’s name come to be synonymous with brilliance, legend and glory despite displaying opportunistic and manipulative tendencies, and repeatedly deserting those that followed him?
200 years after his defeat, what lessons can we learn from his successes and his failures?

As the world marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, this fascinating study on leadership and power tackles the questions that continue to intrigue and mystify.  As now, power was gained and held by political manipulation, patronage, fear, putsch, charisma, popular vote and the new idea of meritocracy. 

Through the inclusion of Reflections and Questions, Jones and Gosling also highlight some important lessons for current and future managers and leaders.

Dr Stephanie Jones is Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at Maastricht School of Management, having graduated with a PhD from University College London, and a Bachelor’s degree (in History) from the London School of Economics. Dr Jones has authored over 25 full-length internationally-published books on business and management – three of them with Professor Jonathan Gosling.

She teaches MBA students across the world, especially courses on leadership, culture and change. Her teaching locations include Kuwait, Egypt, Yemen, China, Vietnam, Peru, Surinam, Kazakhstan and several African countries. With a background managing businesses in recruitment, consulting, and training operations in China, India, the Middle East and Australia, Dr Jones gained extensive experience in the corporate sector before returning to academe a decade ago.

She is still active in consulting and training. Dr Jones also supervises student theses, at Doctoral, Masters and Diploma level, assessing and evaluating theses around the world. Napoleonic Leadership: a study in power is her third book with Professor Gosling, the others being Nelson’s Way and Key Concepts in Leadership.

Jonathan Gosling is Emeritus Professor of Leadership at the University of Exeter, UK, where he directed the Centre for Leadership Studies for 12 years. He is now an independent academic consulting through his company Pelumbra.com, a member of the Bristol Leadership and Change Centre, and Lead Faculty with the Forward Institute promoting responsible leadership in government, NGOs and business. He has designed and delivered many in-company executive development programs for corporations and International agencies. He is currently researching and assisting the leadership of malaria elimination programs, of social-value oriented business-models, sustainable supply chains in China, and of professional organizations (consultancies, universities, health research, etc.). He has written a series of papers on the relevance of philosophy to leading and managing, and books on well-known national heroes. His work is published in journals such as Leadership, Organization, Business Ethics and Harvard Business Review,. His books with Sage include Key Concepts in Leadership(2012), Napoleonic Leadership: a study in power (2015) and chapters in several Sage Handbooks such as that for Responsible Leadership and Management Education (2020). He co-founded the One Planet MBA with WWF-International and the One Planet Education Networks (OPEN) for academic and other experts. He has authored or edited 9 books, over 40 peer-reviewed articles, and a number of influential reports; chaired international conferences, institutional and programme reviews, Professorial and tenure appointments, research grant panels, and so forth. He is on the editorial boards of 6 journals, has supervised over 12 PhDs and examined many more, held visiting positions at universities in Canada, China, Denmark, France, India, Slovenia and New Zealand. He represented UK Universities at the Rio+20 UN Sustainability summit. He was an early instigator of the Critical Management Studies movement, co-founder of the IMPM.org and now plays a significant role in the ‘greening’ of management education worldwide. He worked many years as a mediator and on other interventions inspired by psychodynamic perspectives on power and organizing.  He is co-founder of Coachingourselves.com and is a keen sailor.