Constructionist leadership in the global relational age: The case of the mountain forum

Many people perceive mountains as powerful symbols of pristine wilderness and natural strength. But these perceptions belie the vulnerabilities of mountain environments: All over the world, expanding economic pressures are degrading mountain ecosystems, while confronting mountain peoples with increasing cultural assimilation, poverty, and political disempowerment. In this article, we trace the human response to the growing global agenda for change in relation to the world's precious mountain environments, beginning with the global regime formation associated with Chapter 13 of Agenda 21 at the 1992 Earth Summit and resulting in the construction of a new worldwide organization, the Mountain Forum. In particular, the study builds on the regime formation literature surrounding the three widely acknowledged leadership types-structural, entrepreneurial, and intellectual-and proposes constructionist leadership as a fourth complementary but missing leadership type. Through grounded theory analysis of this unique...