In this regard the evolution of KLSP has clearly made a difference. Four years after the group first met, members of KLSP have agreed to disagree in ways that are less threatening and more open-and more likely in the future to generate good work both individually and collectively. Participants do, of course, continue to share certain basic assumptions. They include the following, which seem obvious to most of us, but are clearly far less obvious to the overwhelming majority of our academic colleagues. Leaders matter-a lot.
Followers matter as much.
Leaders and followers working together can create change. Context matters-a lot. Particularly important to the 21st century context is globalization, the information revolution, diversity, the divide between haves and have-nots, and a range of pressing and in some cases rather new issues such as terrorism and pollution. Leadership is worth a lifetime of study-and then some. Of course, the question of whether Leadership Studies is, legitimately, a field of study, or a discipline, or simply a particular area of inquiry remains an open one.