Consensus leadership under Phillip and Hunter

One interpretation links stability under Arthur Phillip and John Hunter to a naval style of consensus or objective-based leadership. They gave subordinates an objective and considerable freedom over how to achieve it, while still enforcing boundaries when conduct crossed them. The same interpretation holds that both governors contained corruption without driving soldiers, sailors, and convicts toward open resistance. William Bligh's later overthrow supplies the contrast, suggesting that authority in an isolated colony depended partly on whether subordinates accepted the governor's judgment.