| Summary: | Small-scale fisheries (SSF) management approaches which place communities at the centre of decision making are becoming increasingly popular. Local leadership is crucial to participative methods due to increased responsibility placed on local actors. Despite its importance, an initial literature review revealed limited, focused SSFs leadership research. This thesis aimed to contribute to the emerging field of SSF leadership and increase understanding of leadership processes. My objectives were to identify key leadership research gaps, explore how leadership interacts with other important contextual conditions, decipher the influences on effective leadership, and discuss how leadership can facilitate more effective SSFs management. I used a multi-method approach to research leadership at a global scale which includes Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and interviewing. My research finds leadership to be complex, uncertain and dynamic. Leadership acts alone or in combination with other contextual conditions, to influence positive and negative, social and ecological outcomes. Numerous factors influence the propensity of an individual to engage with leadership, such as worldviews, resource constraints at the individual and community level, and interactions with other social actors. Despite the move to participatory approaches there are still numerous concerns about SSFs management, such as the sustainability of community-based organizations. A key finding is that leadership will have an increasingly important role to play in improving the longevity of community-based organizations through processes such as leaderful organizations, succession planning, and capacity building. Leadership is a new research field; therefore this work is of an explanatory nature in terms of its focus and use of novel methodologies. My research identifies important areas for further analysis, such as deciphering the influence of high level leadership on local processes, and investigating how to develop leaderful organizations. Future research should build on my findings to enhance knowledge of leadership functions and processes.
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