Sage Publishers Award for Best Management History Division Paper in Leadership
The Italian Renaissance was a cultural, artistic, and intellectual movement that emerged in Italy during the late 14th century. The movement was centered in Florence where a succession of influential Medici bankers played a pivotal role. This paper characterizes the leadership of the Medici beginning with Giovanni who founded the bank to Piero di Cosimo whose exile marked the end of the High Renaissance. We take an episodic perspective to probe the temporal dynamics characterizing leadership as adaptive or consistent as each Medici pursued his ambitions over time and successive generations. We answer three questions involving time and leadership. First, to what extent did the Medici adapt to events by shifting their leadership versus remaining consistent in their approach? Second, what changes were observed in the leadership of each Medici early and later in their lives? Third, to what extent were the Medici leaders consistent or different across successive generations? The case of the early Medici in Florence during such an influential period offers a uniquely valuable opportunity to understand leadership dynamics within and between leaders across time. The implications of these findings and new directions for leadership theory are discussed.
