The study explored the construction of leadership in the business media by focusing on four widely read online business e-magazines. Using Foucauldian discourse analysis, a sample of 806 online e-magazine articles published between 2015 and 2018 were systematically studied. The construction does not only grant primacy to the leader, but also it obscures followers and other secondary social actors. The study contributes to existing literature on leadership representation, leadership stakeholders involved in such discursive process, and their routine practices of writing leadership texts that legitimize certain meanings at the expense of others. The paper suggests that such a construction of leadership in the business media impacts both followers’ and aspiring leaders’ perceptions, ultimately limiting what can be envisioned and enacted.

该研究通过关注四本广泛阅读的在线商业电子杂志，探索了商业媒体领导力的构建。使用Foucauldian话语分析，系统研究了2015年至2018年期间发布的806篇在线电子杂志文章样本。这种结构不仅使领导者享有至高无上的地位，而且掩盖了追随者和其他次要社会角色。这项研究为有关领导力代表，参与这种话语过程的领导力利益相关者以及他们编写领导力文本以使某些含义合法化而牺牲其他含义的常规做法的现有文献做出了贡献。该论文表明，这种在商业媒体中的领导力建设会影响追随者和有抱负的领导者的观念，最终限制了可以设想和制定的内容。