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Landscape of leadership : Narrating leadership through space and place

Landscape of leadership : Narrating leadership through space and place. Arja Ropo University of Tampere Finland. Focus of the study and research questions. Leadership narratives that people talk into being when describing the landscape of their organization

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Landscape of leadership : Narrating leadership through space and place

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  1. Landscape of leadership: Narratingleadershipthroughspace and place Arja Ropo University of Tampere Finland

  2. Focus of the study and researchquestions • Leadershipnarrativesthatpeopletalk into beingwhendescribing the landscape of theirorganization • How is leadershipnarratedbyusingspatialexpressions? • Howdoesspaceconstruct and performleadership?

  3. Research on place and space in organizations: threestreams • Traditional, objectiveapproach: physicalenvironmentfromarchitectural and managerialperspective (Elsbach & Pratt, 2007) • Subjectivelyorientedresearch on social space (Lefebvre, 1991; Hatch, 1997; Martin, 2002) • Critical, post-stucturalistapproachfocusing on power and politicsthatspaceforms (Foucault, 1977; Dale & Burrell, 2008)

  4. Shift of interest • From an objective, managerial, and architectural approach, such as ”this is howit is planned and determined to work” • Toward understanding the symbolicmeaning of physicalspaces to social interaction, such as ”this is howitaffectspeople, howpeopleuse and interpretit”

  5. Mutuallyconstitutiverelationship • The shiftproblematizes the currentclassification of physical and social spacedrawing on Cartesiandualism. • I assumethat the physicalstructuresprecede and enable, shape and areshapedby social structures. • Thismaybringforth new understandings of the relations of work, space, and leadership.

  6. Relationship of leadership and space • Leadershiphasbeenstudied in variousempiricalsettings and contxts, butspace as suchhasnotbeenconceptuallytreated. • The samephysicalconditionsproducedifferentreactions (Elsbach & Pratt, 2007) • Differentspacescarrydifferentleadershipconstructions. • Leadershipseen as feltexperienceratherthan as cognitiveinfluencebetween the manager and the subordinates

  7. Twonotions of leadership • Leadership as a sociallyconstructedphenomenon (Berger & Luckman, 1967) and as management of meaning (Smircich & Morgan, 1982) • Leadership as an aesthetic, bodilyphenomenon, as a sensingactivity: Leadershipoccurs and is constructednotonly in the intellectualminds, butalso in and through the sensing and experiencingbodies (e.g., Hansen, Ropo, & Sauer, 2007; Ladkin, 2008; Ladkin & Taylor, 2010; Ropo & Parviainen, 2001; Sinclair, 2005)

  8. The aestheticorientation to leadership and spaceexploresfeltexperiences, symbolicmeanings and inherentpowerissueswhichspaces and placesreflect and produce. • Relationshipbetweenleadership and space is twofold: physicalplacesform and shapeleadershipconstructions and acteduponleadershipproduces social, experiencedspaces. • Physicalplacesallow, enable, encourage, and constraintorhindervariousleadershipconstructions and acteduponleadershippractice.

  9. Methodology and data • Aestheticepistemologylegitimizessense-based data, such as emotions, bodilysensations, intuitions,andmentalrepresentations (Strati, 2007) • Narrativeanalysis • Photographs on organizationalspaces, written and oraldescriptions of organisationmembers on howtheyfeel the physicalspace as a place to work, interact, and as a place for leadership • Universitydepartment as a pilotstudyfocus

  10. Narratingleadership in a universitydepartment • Shinyfloors in a steelbuilding • Dynamic, modern, effective • Sterile, clean, pure • Twofloors, symbolichierarchies

  11. ”Facebook” of some, butnot of all

  12. Where is leadershiplurking?Canyouseeit, feelit, smellit? • Behind the closedoors • In the hallways • In facultymeetings • In the coffeeroom • In the departmenthead’soffice

  13. Aquarium – coffeeroomsurroundedbywindows • The furniture, colors, and the overallstyleresemble the clinicalatmosphere of the building • Young researchersgather in the coffeeroomregularly • The departmentchairnevervisits the upperlevelcoffeeroomuninvited

  14. Therearerooms and thereare ROOMS

  15. Peoplehavedifferentattachment to the theirofficespace

  16. Somepreliminaryobservations of leadership and space • Leadership is simultaneouslyhidden and overt • Spaceperformsleadership in a paradoxicalway • Spacepresentsdifferentaffordances to leadership

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