Abstract
We had the good fortune to know and work with Ken for just under 20 years. In an age of specialists and methodological puritanism, Ken was an unrepentant generalist who was equally at ease working with quantitative methods as he was with qualitative methods. In this and many other ways, Ken was a consummate bridge-builder. Whatever it took to get the job done, Ken was always happy to branch out and seek new ways of making better sense of his life’s great passion: leadership.
In 2016, Ken received The Leadership Quarterly Decennial Award for the most influential article over the last 10 years. The article (Parry, 1998) firmly established the notion of leadership as a process of social influence and the necessity of contextual appreciation. He highlighted the use of the Grounded Theory Method as being most suitable for gaining an appreciation of situated leadership. The article pointed scholars away from a preoccupation with law-like truths about the ‘leader’ towards a deep appreciation of leadership as influence within context. Through this article, Ken encouraged us to consciously connect nomological with ideographic approaches. Indeed his impressive legacy of publications do just that, time and time again.
Ken spent most of his working life in Australasia, but his reputation and his influence were truly global. After his first academic post at the University of South Queensland, he set up the Centre for the Study of Leadership at Victoria University of Wellington and while there was responsible for introducing Brad to Leadership Studies. This partnership spawned two books – The Hero Manager and A Very Short Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Studying Leadership which will shortly be published in its third edition. He held chairs in leadership at Griffith University, Bond University and more recently at Deakin University where he co-directed the Deakin Leadership Centre.
His lengthy association with the Lancaster University Management School as a Visiting Fellow probably gave him the most satisfaction. In addition to the fertile research partnership that he struck with Steve most especially in the area of Responsible Leadership, and the warm support he gave to early career researchers, Ken was a truly remarkable executive teacher who succeeded in engaging even the most sceptical seasoned executives with his openness, honesty and creativity.
It was probably his early career as an inventory manager for Meyers-Taylor in his home town of Brisbane that kept him so well rooted in the world of practice. He never lost touch with what it was like to lead and to manage outside academia. Commenting to us on the penal research regimes in universities fixated on the production of articles in top journals he wryly noted: ‘I started my career in a manufacturing environment, moved into higher education, and now it feels like I have returned to manufacturing!’
In common with Alan Bryman, with whom Ken co-authored a handbook chapter that provided a wonderful overview of Leadership in Organisations (Parry and Bryman, 2006), we and many others knew him as one of the most supportive and generous colleagues we had the privilege and pleasure to work with. The world of leadership studies was deeply enriched by Ken’s scholarship, his dry wit, his collegiality and his friendship. Of all the epithets about Ken that we have received in the many emails since his passing, one stands out above all: ‘Ken was a very decent bloke’.
Ken died on 11 February 2018. His characteristic independence and determination enabled him to far exceed his original prognosis with pancreatic cancer. He passed away peacefully, with no pain or discomfort in his final hours and with his sons, Hamish and Jonathan and his partner, Emma Watton by his side.