Introduction

Leadership in the 21

st

century means leading in a “new era of leadership” (Barton, Grant and Horn, 2012). An increasingly dynamic, uncertain, globalized, and interconnected environment has profound implications not only for organizations but also for their leaders (Crevani, Lindgren and Packendorff, 2010). The current information and knowledge age requires a new kind of leadership to take advantage of the key resources of knowledge and human capital, as knowledge-intensive activities require exchange processes and people-oriented or relational approaches of leadership. Relational leadership is about stimulating those relationships and fostering interactive processes to “make things happen”, often by influencing the actions of others (Huxham and Vangen, 2000, p. 1160). Uhl-Bien (2006, p. 655) states that “knowing is always a process of relating”.