The rapid growth of global multi-national corporations raises several questions about the Western dominance of the English language in shaping ideas about leadership in international business. It has been noted for some time now[i] that most research and intellectual debate takes place in English, and this often leads to views of leadership that reflect Western assumptions. As organisations face global challenges such as climate change, inequality and political uncertainty, both the practice and the language of leadership need to recognise that it can mean different things in different cultures and languages.
A new research project ‘Leadership Language and Visualisation’suggests that we cannot assume ideas about leadership will translate easily into other languages and cultures. This has serious implications for leaders in global businesses – particularly when considering core organisational messaging, leadership development and cultural change. This becomes even more important when we consider equality, diversity and inclusion. While ideas such as ‘inclusive leadership’ offer a positive direction, they also have limits. Ideas about inclusive leadership are often shaped by Westernised thinking and the English language, which can narrow how inclusion is understood elsewhere.
The Leadership, Language and Visualisation project responded by exploring how leadership is talked about and how it is visualised across two different cultural and linguistic contexts – the UK and Italy – within a large multi-national media company. Translators played a key role to ensure that the Italian language was represented deeply within data collection and analysis. The key research question was to explore how the concept of ‘inclusive leadership’ travels (or not) across language and cultural boundaries.
This matters because leadership communication does more than describe organisational culture. It helps create it. The words organisations choose and the images they use send messages about what is valued and what success looks like. When ideas are translated from one language and culture to another, we cannot assume meanings will travel too. This can create tension between English or Western narratives and the lived experiences of people working in other cultural settings.
To truly create ‘inclusive leadership’ we need to focus less on the label and more on everyday practices shaped by local context. Ideas that feel natural in an English speaking, UK based setting can take on different meanings elsewhere. In some cultures for example, leadership is understood less as individual action and more as shared way of working.
“When global organisations apply one leadership model everywhere without allowing for local interpretation, they risk flattening difference rather than valuing it.”
One of the most revealing insights from the research is that even the word ‘leader’ has very different meanings and associations in different cultures and practices. In some contexts, it is not always a role people aspire to or find relevant in their daily work. People develop their sense of inclusion and exclusion through small interactions, visual signals and routine practices. These moments are often mundane, yet they carry emotional weight.
For example, this might be about reflecting the religious diversity of an organisation in its own context rather than superimposing religious values shaped by a UK perspective. It might be about recognising the social history of a country and how this shapes ideas about leadership, identity and fairness. Centralised, Western leadership narratives may unintentionally reinforce difference, marginalise others or simply fail to connect with local realities.
This suggests that changing leadership is not only about introducing new language or new policies. It also requires paying attention to the symbolic, cultural and visual dimensions of organisational life. Global leaders might want to consider how a UK or English based strategy can translate to different cultural contexts. This means slowing down and reflecting on how leadership is represented and understood.
Inclusive leadership is not a static ideal that can be rolled out unchanged across contexts. It is a practice that is interpreted, negotiated and translated by people in specific places, using specific languages and drawing on local cultural assumptions.
“…one should discover diversity or show that they understand diversity as naturally as possible … otherwise it is forced” – Italian Participant
If organisations are serious about inclusion, they need to engage with this complexity rather than smoothing it over. That means making space for local voices, questioning familiar images of authority and recognising the power of everyday communication. Leadership does not only live in strategy documents or training programmes. It lives in the stories we tell, the pictures we share and the assumptions we leave unspoken. Until those change, leadership may continue to look much the same, perpetuating a Westernised power dynamic that will never be truly global or inclusive.
The authors of this article have been commissioned to edit a book on Ghost Leadership: Uncovering the Hidden and Unsettling Sides of Leadership for the ILA and Emerald Building Leadership Bridges book series. To find out more and to submit a chapter proposal please read the complete CFP. The Deadline for initial outlines is 18th November 2024.
Halloween (see Notes for a discussion of Halloween’s roots) is an inherently liminal time and space — straddling Autumn and Winter (in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere at least), the natural and the supernatural, feast and famine, life and death — a period where normal rules, categories, and identities are momentarily suspended, and change, transformation, experimentation, and play come to the forefront. Despite increasing commercialization, Halloween is still fundamentally centered on the fear of the unknown, unseen, and unsaid, and allows a temporary and anarchic zone of ambiguous groupings.
Of course, these kinds of periods also enable a space for pause and reflection —for sensemaking and understanding (or perhaps questioning) our own taken-for-granted rules and assumptions. When normal service is suspended, it allows us a glimpse behind the curtain, and this is regularly felt with the deep examination that Halloween offers of inclusion and exclusion in society. Indeed, Halloween provides us a lens to examine the place of “outsiders”’ and notions of societal belonging — whether that be the monsters and ghouls that descend onto mortal soil or how those traditionally marginalized in society (such as children) may take on more dominant roles during the time. After witnessing safe structures being inverted and previously invisible forces bubbling up, when the dust settles, we emerge with a deeper understanding of “normal” life — perhaps more appreciative, perhaps more questioning. We are granted a view of the “strange.”
This offers up a powerful opportunity to explore leadership dynamics in organizations. What can we learn from the temporary suspension of convention at Halloween that can enable us to see leadership in new ways in our organizations? How can we ask different questions about the unseen and unsaid? About hidden forces? About mortality and vitality? About individual and organizational identities, and how they may typically serve to marginalize and disempower? And, unlike the short-term (and often superficial) suspension during Halloween, can we develop our own capacity to adopt this questioning mindset as a permanent part of our organizational experience?
Facing Our Monsters
The phantoms and monsters that have come to characterize the festival of Halloween can be considered as archetypes that provide insight into our greatest hopes and fears. In what follows we will consider four of the most widely known Halloween monsters — ghosts, vampires, werewolves and zombies — as productive metaphors to unmask the hidden and uncanny aspects of leadership.
Ghosts — The importance of Culture and Place
Ghosts are amongst the most ancient manifestations of the supernatural. One of the earliest accounts is attributed to Pliny the Younger, who wrote in first century CE of an old, bearded man with rattling chains haunting his house in Athens (History.com, 2023). Ghosts, phantoms, and spectres are ubiquitous — with stories in most, if not all, communities around the world. A common notion underpinning ghost lore is the separation of the body and soul — with ghosts being those unfortunate spirits that, when freed from their bodies, become trapped between life and the afterlife (a space previously referred to as “purgatory”).
In her book The Ghost: A Cultural History, Susan Owens (2017) suggests that ghosts serve two main functions within society — firstly to remind us of the inevitability of death and secondly to offer reassurance that death is not the end. Through popular culture, ghosts vary hugely in temperament, from benevolent (e.g., Casper the Friendly Ghost), through benign (e.g., many of the Hogwarts ghosts in Harry Potter), eccentric and unpredictable (e.g., Beetlejuice), to outright malevolent (e.g., Freddy Kruger). The scariest ghosts, however, are perhaps those that we cannot see — either lurking in the shadows or simply invisible.
In applying the ghost metaphor to leadership, several points come to mind. Firstly, ghosts are usually a sign that something is amiss — that a soul hasn’t passed through to “the other side;” that something terrible happened in a particular place; or that some wrongdoing has occurred (such as the building of houses on burial grounds in the films Poltergeist and Amityville Horror). Secondly, ghosts remind us of the situatedness of experience — ghosts don’t, by and large, turn up at random but are integrally linked to the people and/or places they haunt. And thirdly, there is the importance of stories and storytelling in making sense of who the ghosts are and why they do what they do. Key themes we might consider here are the importance of organizational culture and the need to acknowledge and, if necessary, purge the spirits of the past to move forward. We might also consider aspects of place-based leadership and the interconnections between workplaces & organizations, cities & communities, countries & societies, and virtual & imagined worlds (Sutherland et al., 2022). Finally, we might be encouraged to consider the experience of being “haunted’” — as similar to a followers’ account of the legacy and impact of their experiences (good and bad) in relation to the ghostly “leadership” influences around them.
Vampires – The Complexities of Ascension
The typical theme surrounding vampires is one of ascension — where, following their conversion, an ordinary human suddenly experiences immortality, previously unknown power, and now occupies a permanently hierarchical position above mortal beings. Leaders may find themselves experiencing a similar transformation through promotion up the ranks (Kempster & Stewart, 2010). Like vampires, they may find that their worldview is shifted — peers becoming subordinates, power imbalances straining relationships, and becoming detached, perhaps, from their more “human” tendencies and emotions, finding them replaced with a focus on broader concerns and strategic goals that they didn’t consider previously — without which, survival would be impossible. Indeed, leaders may be aware of the potential for leaving permanent marks on their organizations and people they lead — where their policies, visions, and impacts can not only be perceived of as unquestionable, but also conceivably lasting long after their time in a formal leadership role ends.
The challenge throughout this is to understand that the archetypal tale of a vampire is of one who has lost their empathy with their previous kind, becoming hyper-individualistic and seeing the question of survival as a solo pursuit reliant on others being “drained” (Godwin, 2012). Within organizations, this power, if left unchecked, can quickly become destructive — either through exhausting morale or even, intersubjectively, “destroying” their team. As mortals, we have the opportunity to resist those vampiric tendencies. We have the agency to contest the temptation to see a leadership role as one that comes with irrefutable authority and instead balance our newfound power with empathy and compassion — driving for a sustainable influence rather than exponentially extracting from those around us.
Through this, we can see that the metaphor of the vampire helps us to understand how leaders might frame their roles differently, but that this also involves a complex renegotiation of the self in the process. Whilst conversations around the anxiety that accompanies leaders is still surprisingly scarce, portrayals of vampires do regularly focus on the challenges and complexities of their new position — coming to terms with their new power (and often over-stepping the boundaries in their early stages), loneliness, the requirement for training, understanding their severed relationships, and renegotiating their places in society. From Dracula, to True Blood, to Twilight, the story of the vampire is laced with sorrow as well as aspiration. Thus, in addition to understanding the impact of leaders on their teams, the vampiric metaphor also may help us to understand in more complex detail the journey of the individual who finds themselves transformed. Whilst promoting an aspiration for power is common within Western cultures, much less is dedicated to exploring and coping with the contradictory feelings that come afterwards — emotions that leaders may feel make them an imposter and that subsequently encourage them to fall back to occupying the “default” position of wielding power over others. Perhaps this offers us the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of tales of vampires, and bring in the messy, contested, and complicated emotions that come with ascension to powerful positions. Our following reflection on the experience of werewolves delves further into this complexity.
Werewolves – The Crisis of Self
In folklore, a werewolf (lycanthrope) is a human who involuntarily transforms into a wolf at full moon. Werewolves represent the manifestation of primal human instincts with energies and fearlessness fueled by desires for power and freedom whilst at the same time, offering loyalty. Symbolically, werewolves represent the underlying struggle between good and evil in the human psyche, one that is captured in the identity crisis that occurs in the human-wolf-human liminal states.
Werewolves offer fertile ground to study identity transformation and crisis given that symbolic, agentic, and experiential transformation aid understanding the liminality of identity struggles (Belk, 1988, 2013; Schouten, 1991). Applying liminality theory (Beech, 2011; Cody, 2012) the ability to integrate new self-concepts is vital for human-werewolves as they transition from one stable way of structuring their identity to another, letting go of their old identity before their new one can be established. Whilst in transitory mode, the human-werewolf teeters on thresholds (literally “līmen”) often portrayed as struggling with the multiple possibilities of what they will become. The identity struggle includes the uncertainty of what will occur whilst transformed and how the new, reassembled identity will manifest. The fears, fantasies, and desires of the new, wilder human-werewolf on the threshold capture endless possibilities.
A vivid illustration of this is Martin Parker’s (2004) autoethnographic account of taking on the role of Head of Department at Keele University and the challenges of assimilating this alongside his professional identity as a Critical Management Studies scholar. The title of the article — Becoming Manager: Or, the Werewolf Looks Anxiously in the Mirror, Checking for Unusual Facial Hair — powerfully captures the very real struggles experienced (yet rarely discussed) by people in such situations. Liminal identity is conceptualized as “a threshold state of existence that involves the dissolution of one self-whilst reflexively recrafting a new self” (Beech, 2011). This highlights that liminality occurs at the intersection between agency and structure wherein identity is viewed as a co-construction between self and socio-cultural contexts (Beech, 2011; Ybema et al., 2011). The journey of werewolf liminal identity struggle typically involves multiple phases. As shapeshifters, the werewolf identity crisis has caught the attention of scholars who examine embodied identities, hyper sexuality, psychology, heredity, and othering (e.g., du Coudray, 2002; McMahon-Coleman & Weaver, 2012; Bernhardt-House, 2016). Werewolves as depicted throughout history, represent threats to established norms and behaviors of a social context, hence when in the “monster” liminal states, they are often imprisoned (Koetsier & Forceville, 2014). The phases of transformation include Awakening (an initial realization of one’s werewolf nature); Denial (attempts to dismiss or rationalize the emotional response to these changes); Exploration (as the individual begins to experiment with their newfound abilities); Conflict (inner turmoil and/or external conflict as the individual grapples with the duality and tensions of their human and wolf identities); Isolation (a sense of alienation from “normal” human society and struggle to connect with others); Acceptance (as the human comes to terms with their dual identity, and discovers ways to manage their transformations); and Empowerment (where the human-werewolf learns to harness their abilities and may, on a good day, use their experiences to help others navigate similar struggles or, on a bad day, unleash their inner identity struggle and crisis on the world — terrorizing, murdering, and devouring prey with unstoppable momentum).
Whilst werewolves may be famed for their potential savagery, they are also regarded as intensely loyal. A second theoretical lens that could be applied, therefore, is Social Identity Theory (SIT) (Kleine & Kleine, 2000), which suggests that individuals strive for high self-esteem by affirming the value of social groups to which they belong, while avoiding associations with social groups perceived as less valued (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). In terms of werewolves, an SIT framework assumes individuals align their werewolf selves to referent groups in order to associate more strongly with or distance themselves from particular social identities (Reed, 2002). The same may be true of leaders and managers as they associate with and promote the interests of certain “in” groups, often in direct competition with “out” groups. SIT helps to understand what motivates human-werewolf (leader/manager) behavior as it posits they will employ strategies to achieve the desired identity status. The human werewolf will act in ways that demonstrate its loyalties to certain groups to mark their position in this new group. Ultimately, the werewolf builds group membership by ensuring that those who survive an attack are destined to transform into werewolves themselves at the next full moon.
Metaphors provide a powerful opportunity to reveal the taken-for-granted assumptions behind organizational life, granting us a glimpse at the unseen, uncanny, and unsettling nature of leadership itself.
Zombies – Following the Herd?
Whilst the metaphor of the vampire and werewolf can help us to understand the experience of the leader, what of metaphors that can enhance our understanding of the follower? In our final section we reflect on how narratives around zombie-like behavior can raise questions about the nature of followership in organizations, serving as a direct counterpoint to the leader-centric narratives that pervade much Organization Studies literature.
Whilst there are a wide range of zombie typologies in modern media, they tend to be known to follow their herd mindlessly (Lauro, 2017) in a perpetual search for their next “hit” of brains, destruction, or the infection and conversion of others. Our experience of encountering zombies in media often results in a kneejerk disgust at the swarm, and fear of the power of large and interchangeable numbers (McAndrew, 2018). However, zombies can provide an appropriate metaphor for understanding the logical extreme of mindless followership in organizations, where individuals eschew their critical thinking skills in favor of adopting a herd mentality — where they are unreflexively be a part of something bigger than themselves but lose themselves in the process. Indeed, Jackson and Parry (2009) note that followers are often thought of as “recipients” of leadership practice, with Collinson (2006) articulating that they can be “marked by their susceptibility to their leaders’ aims and goals.” Whilst this mechanistic framing may have served the theory of more traditional post-Taylorist management studies — which focus on the centrality of top-down leadership, harmony, clear direction, and unquestionable hierarchy (Fournier & Grey, 2000) — we only have to apply our zombie metaphor to begin to unpack the problematic aspects of this.
If we work on the oft-stated assumption that “leadership implies followership,” we run the risk of adopting the view that power relations in organizations should be permanently asymmetric — there are active leaders, there are passive followers, and rarely is the boundary breached. For those cast in the latter category, there is then an implicit instruction that voice, innovation, critical thought, and independence are not characteristics to be prized, but denigrated (Tourish, 2013). Instead, the responsibility to lead falls in the lap of a chosen few who have hordes underneath to conduct their bidding. The dangers of herd mentality in groups have been a topic of great interest for years, with the problems of groupthink never lurking far behind — defined by a lack of criticality and an assumption of homogeneity in goals (Janis, 1971; Grube & Killick, 2023).
What futures can be re-imagined if we break the cycle of seeing followers through the metaphorical lens of zombies? What if we question the notion that leaders are all-powerful and that followers are subservient and only interested in the relentless pursuit of the leaders’ instruction? Not only does this free those in leadership positions from the anxiety and fear that comes along with the expectation of omnipotence with their new identity, but it also sets a precedent that organizations are built on collective not individual capacity. Breaking this cycle involves us unlearning decades of management theory and a confidence from leaders to lead, perhaps, more from the “side” rather than the “top” — seeking diverse perspectives, encouraging red-teaming, and fostering genuine and authentic innovation from their organizations.
Unmasking Leadership
Throughout this piece, we have drawn on different Halloween-inspired monstrous metaphors to help prompt reflective questions about contemporary leadership practice — whether that be ghosts and the significance of culture and place, the aspirational vampiric narrative, werewolves occupying liminal spaces, or the dangers of zombie-like herd mentality. We follow in the footsteps of Morgan (1989) and Alvesson and Spicer (2011) in arguing that metaphors provide a powerful opportunity to reveal the taken-for-granted assumptions behind organizational life, and, in our case, grant us a further glimpse at the unseen, uncanny, and unsettling nature of leadership itself. Taking time to reflect on how cultural reference points are played out in reality offers us a trip to hyper-reality that can open up avenues of exploration that might have been closed off before.
To take this one stage further, let us finish with one final comparison. Masks are synonymous with Halloween — from children dressing up in spooky faces for trick-or-treating, to the grotesque guises that famous horror villains, like Michael Myers from the Halloween series, don. At a surface level these masks serve as both protection and concealment against true identities, perhaps as a deliberate effort to deceive, intimidate, or manipulate, and/or as a productive opportunity to occupy a new self for a temporary time (O’hUadhaigh, 2024). Organization Studies literature has regularly pointed toward this from a dramaturgical perspective and the presentation of self (Goffman, 1959; Jeffcut et al., 2007; Peng, 2023), reminding us that, similar to wearing a Halloween costume, organizational members often adopt specific personas to meet preconceived expectations.
Whilst there is clear psychological security that comes from this, we argue that there does need to be reflective space opened up in leadership practice about the masks we choose to wear — about why we need them, where our desire to wear them comes from, and about the ways in which they make us act when in character. These masks enable action, but they may also limit our activity as we unreflexively act out dominant narratives. Just as Joaquin Phoenix’s titular Joker experiences, this becomes especially problematic when the mask begins to “eat into the face” — moving from a temporary shield into a permanent persona that distorts self-awareness. Leadership positions are frequently lonely and vulnerable places (Lam et al., 2024), fraught with both real and imagined unseen expectations, and, although our masks can provide some temporary respite by hiding our own perceived weaknesses, openly acknowledging our imperfections and uncertainties may provide an alternative avenue for agency and for gaining insights into behaviors, motivations, and power dynamics at play in our organizations.
In this short piece, we have explored how several metaphors can provide rich insights into leadership, identity, power, and performance in organizational settings. We encourage you to consider the masks that you may wear and the “metaphors you lead by” (Alvesson & Spicer, 2011). The unmasking process is an inevitably frightening one but placing it aside — even momentarily — may tell us more about what lies beneath.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Notes: With its roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain, Halloween tends to be celebrated in Western English-speaking societies. Different traditions and festivals are used to celebrate/remember the dead in other cultures, such as Day of the Dead (Mexico and Latin America), Obon (Japan), Chuseok (South Korea), Gai Jatra (Nepal), Pchum Ben (Cambodia), and the Hungry Ghost Festival (celebrated by Buddhists and Taoists around the World) (see https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/festivals-dead-around-world-180953160/), although these are not the focus of the current article.
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Although there has been substantial research into the experiences and practices of inclusivity and its links to leadership, much of what we know so far is based on traditional research carried out and published mainly in the English language. This does not reflect linguistic and cultural diversity in contemporary global organisations and societies and its implications for everyday interactions at work. We argue that a much more nuanced, contextually and language sensitive perspective is needed to unpack what inclusivity looks like in contemporary organisations. We have therefore set to out to explore inclusion (and exclusion) in different languages and from the perspective of different cultures.
More specifically we seek to explore:
How is inclusion and exclusion experienced by staff in different roles and work contexts in a leading global contemporary organisation?
What do meaningful inclusion and exclusion practices look like in daily interactions between individuals and in teams?
What are the barriers and enables of inclusion for individuals, teams and the organisation as a whole?
We will then consider how meanings might change during the translation process to create new ways of thinking about inclusivity. This responds to calls for more reflexivity about language and translation in organisation, management and leadership studies.
Participation in the study involves taking part in a research interview with one of our researchers using photo elicitation. Participants bring photographs that capture their experiences of inclusion and exclusion within the organisation to the interview. All interviews are run in a relaxed atmosphere where we then discuss the photographs and related questions. Our participants have praised the non-judgemental, safe space that we create which is an ideal setting to reflect differently on one’s experiences and organisational practices. Here are some excerpts from testimonials we have received:
“It was a very safe space in that I felt comfortable speaking out about my good (and bad!) experiences regarding inclusion (or lack thereof!)”
“The interview was great! I really enjoyed it.”
“The study has made me reflect and helped me stop excluding myself. Thank you! ”
Participants regularly comment that they appreciate the opportunity to discuss experiences in a ‘non-work’ setting and share their perspective so as to positively impact upon future workplace practices and policies.
The study is designed to make a positive contribution not only to academic debates but also to practice and the experiences of our research participants and their colleagues. Upon completion of the study, our findings and report will be shared and discussed with the partnering organisation. All participants will receive a summary of our findings. The opportunity for a positive impact is significant. As our participants have observed:
“It will help shape [our] inclusion practices and helpcontribute to a more positive environment goingforward.“
“Inclusion needs to come from the inside out, so if we’re an inclusive employer then we can be inclusive for our customers too. But to be as inclusive as possible, we need to know what we are currently doing…This interview is your chance to help answer that and help [us] be as inclusive as possible.“
“The study ‘should help [understand] how we see eachother, what makes us who we are. Having difficultconversations is all part of us moving forward.“
Research is in progress, and we are currently actively recruiting participants. In particular we are looking for German, Irish, Austrian and Czech participants from our partnered international company so that we can best deliver on our goal of tapping into diverse language and cultural contexts.
Once we have completed an interview we begin analysis, this process has already started for interviews that have already been completed. The analysis involves examining the similarities and differences in representations of inclusion in the pictures, narratives in the original languages and scripts that have been translated by professional translators into English. Translators fully engage the research team in the translation process, working closely with us to explain their decision-making rationales as texts are translated. This transparency enhances our ability to interpret and analyse the data more accurately.
This multi-layered approach allows us to explore how the concept of inclusion takes on meaning and is experienced both within and across different linguistic and cultural and socio-political contexts.
Why this matters:
We foresee that this research will improve knowledge in the area of leadership practices across cultural, socio-political and linguistic contexts; advance research methods by applying visual methodologies to the study of language translation and advance organisational practice by highlighting the linguistic intricacies of inclusivity agendas and their influence on the lives of employees.
If you’re working in our partnering organisation and would like to find out more or take part in our study please reach out to us as we’d really like to hear from you.
You can contact Gareth on gareth3.edwards@uwe.ac.uk who will put you in touch with one of our researchers responsible for data collection in your division’s respective language.
If you would like to follow our progress or find out more about the project in its entirety, look out for future blog articles and social media updates.
We are a seven-person strong multilingual and multi-disciplinary research team with expertise in leadership, critical management studies, sociology, anthropology, HRM, applied linguistics and visual methods. Our team includes: Professor Doris Schedlitzki (London Metropolitan University), Dr Sylwia Ciuk (Oxford Brookes University), Professor Gareth Edwards, Dr Harriet Shortt, Professor Hugo Gaggiotti, Dr Jana Patey and Dr Kay Galpin (UWE Bristol). We have partnered with an innovative organisation which has offices across several countries, including Germany, Italy, England, Ireland, Austria and Czech Republic.
Gareth Edwards –Principal Investigator
Director of Research and Enterprise and Professor of Leadership and Community Studies at the University of the West of England. Gareth’s research centres around the idea of distributed or dispersed leadership, but taking this approach to leadership from a community perspective. Access Gareth’s full profile here.
Reader in Organisation Studies and the Deputy Head of OBBS Doctoral Programmes at Oxford Brookes University. Sylwia often builds innovative research methods into her research designs. In the past she has developed a range of methodological innovations, such as narrative photo collages and experiential maps. Access Sylwia’s full academic profile here.
Doris is Professor of Organisational Leadership and the Head of Research at Guildhall School of Business and Law, London Met. Doris’ main research focus is on leadership and explores the areas of cultural studies of leadership, discourse and leadership, leadership as identity, psychoanalytic approaches to leadership and the role of national language within cultural leadership studies. Access Doris’s access here.
Hugo is a Professor at the Faculty of Business and Law at the University of West of England. His research focus centers on the intersections between leadership, organizational narratives and professional mobility from an interdisciplinary organizational ethnographic approach. Access Hugo’s full Profile here.Email:Hugo.Gaggiotti@uwe.ac.uk
Harriet Shortt –Lead Researcher
Harriet is Associate Professor in Organisation Studies at the University of West of England (would you want to mention your secondment here?) Harriet’s research focuses on organisational space, artefacts, and the materiality of work. She has expertise in qualitative research methods including visual methodologies, specifically, participant-led photography. Access Harriets full profile here. Email:Harriet.Shortt@uwe.ac.uk
Jana Patey – Research Associate
Jana is a Researcher at the University of West of England. She holds a PhD from the University of Essex and the University of Suffolk in the area of workplace relations, affect and psychoanalysis. She has expertise in applying qualitative methodologies and has worked as a Researcher on several research projects including a longitudinal work on workplace wellbeing and productivity. Access Jana’s full profile here. Email:Jana.Patey@uwe.ac.uk
Kay Galpin – Research Associate
Kay is a Researcher at the University of the West of England. She holds a Phd from this university in the area of storytelling interventions and organisational change. She has an expertise in the application of qualitative research methods and is part of an a research and practice community called ‘The Unleadership Movement’ that is interested in creative enquiry exploring how leaderly practices can develop. Access Kays full profile here. Email:Kay.Galpin@uwe.ac.uk
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, hybrid working models have become the new norm for many organizations. With employees splitting their time between the office and remote setups, it’s crucial to understand how these evolving workspaces impact their psychosocial health and well-being as well as considering the individual need when planning these spaces.
Using researchers at the University of the West of England as a case study the research team took a deep dive into this very issue, investigating the lived experiences of hybrid working among knowledge workers. Drawing from Salutogenesis, (A model which focuses on factors that promote health and well-being) the study employed a unique participatory visual approach.
University staff members were asked to capture their hybrid working practices through photographs, offering an intimate glimpse into their daily realities. The visual data revealed fascinating insights into the paradoxical nature of workspace curation.
Figure 2 Comfortable function and productivity
On one hand, personalizing workspaces allowed employees to anchor their self-identity and foster a sense of belonging. Decorating a home office or displaying personal items at work helped create comfort and connection. However, the research also discovered that excessive personalization could lead to a sense of depersonalization and spaces became too closely aligned with specific professional identities.
The study highlighted the tension between territorial and nomadic approaches to workspace curation. Some participants embraced their home offices as sanctuaries, curating them as deeply personal havens. Others adopted a more fluid, nomadic mindset, tidying away their work belongings and embracing the fluidity of their professional identities across
Figure 3 ‘Curated comfort’ in home space
Through this lens, the research revealed three significant contributions:
It highlighted the importance of giving individuals control over shaping their environments to promote personal well-being in hybrid setups. This autonomy plays a crucial role in navigating the complexities of hybrid work.
It demonstrated how visual methods can reveal the nuanced ways individuals mobilize resources within their workspaces for self-care and health responsibility. The photographs provided a powerful window into these often-unseen practices.
It underlined the need for organizations to recognize individual circumstances when developing hybrid work policies. A one-size-fits-all approach fails to account for the diverse needs and workspace curation practices that impact employee well-being.
In a world where the boundaries between work and personal life are increasingly blurred, organisations need to take a timely reminder of the importance of curating healthy hybrid workspaces. By empowering individuals to shape their environments in ways that foster comfort, connection, and well-being, organizations can unlock the full potential of the people within them.
As we continue to navigate the uncharted waters of hybrid work, embracing the art of individual workspace curation may well be the key to thriving in this new reality.
Bristol Leadership and Change Centre (BLCC) at Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, is incredibly proud to congratulate our very own Dr. Harriet Shortt on being named a 2024 Woman of Influence by The Planner.
Harriet has been named one of 54 Women of Influence in 2024 for her pioneering work in developing innovative methods for inclusive and participatory engagement within the urban planning and placemaking process.
As an active member of BLCC, Harriet’s research has focused on bridging the gap between academia and industry practice. Her ground-breaking “Picturing Places” project, shortlisted for a 2023 Planning Award, exemplifies this approach. Using visual arts-based methods, Harriet engaged local communities and stakeholders, translating their values and experiences into a series of key performance indicators to embed within a masterplan from conception through to implementation.
Harriet’s research has explored vital issues like the design of workplaces for hybrid environments and how the creation of inclusive spaces can foster cultural change within organizations. She has collaborated with organisations such as Stride Treglown, ISG, Argent LLP, Aster Housing Group, and the RFU on supporting this type of organizational transformation through authentic public engagement.
At BLCC, we have greatly benefited from Harriet’s dual roles as an academic researcher and industry practitioner. As head of visual engagement at BiBO Studio and founder/director of SHORTt CONSULTING, she continually tests and implements her research findings within real-world planning and design projects. This integrated approach ensures her work generates tangible social impact.
In response to receiving this award Harriet said:
“I’m delighted to have been listed as a Woman of Influence 2024 by those working in the placemaking industry. Not only is it great to be recognised for the work I’m doing, but I think this demonstrates how public engagement and knowledge exchange – where we as researchers working with industry and wider communities – can really add social value. It highlights the value of working at the nexus between academia and industry, and that impact beyond academia is fundamental to research success”.
We are immensely proud to have Harriet as a core member of the BLCC team. Her passion, creativity, and commitment to inclusive placemaking embody the highest values of our research group. Congratulations, Harriet, on this well-deserved recognition! We look forward to your continued groundbreaking work and impact for years to come.
In Pieces of Us, our co-author discusses the mixed fortunes of Greenhill, a distinctive Swansea inner-city neighbourhood, created through the successful integration of Welsh and Irish people, who’d moved there to provide labour for Swansea’s industries. The story has particular insights for our current health and care systems landscape, and some historical ‘scene-setting’ will give a useful context.
The process of ethnic integration was relatively trouble-free, though with several critical leadership interventions. When cholera struck in 1849, the newcomer Catholic priest, Father Kavanagh, worked with Dr William Long, tending the sick, washing them, combing their hair and administering last rites. This demonstration of compassionate leadership and community-cohesion helped enmesh separate parts of the community in a single survival story.
As the area grew in both size and political power, infrastructure increased: Swansea’s only cathedral, a school and a church social club. This triad of formal institutions balanced educational, spiritual and pleasure needs, offering an elevating sense of purpose and belonging to Greenhill’s residents. Roads, shops and pubs followed, establishing both formal and informal meeting places – school gates, the church, pavements, doorways and windowsills – resulting in thousands of ‘chance conversations’. These exchanges developed social capital and established a shared sense of identity and mutuality between community members; finding form in neighbourly acts of practical and moral support. Thousands of people engaged in a continuous rich exchange, crossing generational, ethnic and faith boundaries.
Neighbourhoods are complex systems where an unpredictable order emerges from many disordered interactions. Over a period of 100 years, Greenhill evolved an extremely cohesive community, exhibiting strong civic engagement and social connection. However, from the 1970s onwards, the area entered into gradual decline, as the infrastructure and social fabric of this community was dismantled in a series of naïve social development projects.
Technocrats from outside the community intervened to raise housing standards, reduce air pollution and improve traffic flow in the area. This was done with little regard for the impact on Greenhill’s entangled lives and intangible community assets. ‘Sub-standard’ dwellings were demolished, displacing residents from inter-generational neighbourhoods. A major road was widened, removing shops along with the opportunity for neighbours to cross paths and exchange news and points-of-view.
In the vacuum of absent conversations, social capital depleted, urban blight spread and crime rose. Since then, significant sums have been invested on a series of social and economic regeneration projects aimed at reversing the decline caused, in part, by these well-intended ‘outsider interventions’.
While this is a particular case, spanning some 170 years, (and focuses on just one aspect of Greenhill’s decline), we believe these insights offer lessons for leadership effectiveness in today’s health and care systems.
Firstly, system leadership must be a collective effort.
There are lots of ways to describe our health and care systems and each has its merits. Acknowledging the lens we see through is therefore vital. Incorporating the alternatives, even better!
Given current political, regulatory and management pressures – the demand for “more grip” – it’s perhaps understandable if leaders privilege a mechanical view of their system. However, this perspective tends to reduce participation; hoarding control ‘at the top’. And – because it denies the distributed nature of ‘system knowledge’ – its solutions are likely based on only partial understanding. Accordingly, leadership development must focus on enabling leaders to work in partnership and to draw out the knowledge and histories stored-up in diverse pockets of the system.
Secondly, leaders need to be more curious about the emergent phenomena of the socio-technical systems within which they operate.
Where social is the time-woven tapestry of local stories, rituals, symbols and language; and technical is about structure, organisation, policy, etc. And – crucially – where small-scale localised events may result in large-scale whole system changes! We recommend that leadership development focuses on a collaborative enquiry into a system’s inherent dualities and non-linear system dynamics.
Greenhill’s civil re-engineering scheme was – no doubt – undertaken in good faith. However, it lacked an understanding of the social-technical system as a whole. This resulted in negative unintended consequences that have since proven extremely difficult and costly to remedy.
Thirdly, senior sponsors and boards have a responsibility to develop board assurance approaches that are fit for complex health and care systems.
Traditional board assurance ensures that the risks to achieving key strategic goals are properly understood and controlled. However, complexity necessarily involves ambiguity and uncertainty, which cannot be controlled because causality is both unclear and unpredictable. Senior sponsors and boards must seek reassurance that staff are cognisant of the complexity of the system – that proposed interventions are “built to learn” and can be contained if they go awry. Moreover, do ensure that feedback mechanisms provide robust, short, medium and long-term data on system impacts and emerging risks.
Lastly, system leaders must design for greater connection.
In the case of Greenhill, much of what was most valuable was the unintended – yet deeply desirable – fruits of people coming together to ‘work things out’: a more diffuse form of leadership than we generally envisage when addressing organisation challenges. Thus, system leaders must foster the skills of convening and containing – inviting people to take a seat at the metaphorical table (striving for representation and diversity) and then making it safe for people to ‘bring their difference’ in open, honest and collaborative ways – especially when this involves conflict. Difference, after all, can be a source of learning and innovation, if supported by social bonds that are strong enough to resist the urge to fragment.
Too much of leadership development (as with how we select, evaluate and incentivise our leaders), still focuses on the heroic individual’s abstract knowledge, skills, behaviours and personality. Perhaps however leadership is better understood as an emergent phenomenon – a product of the live system! Accordingly, relationships and relatedness ought to be the primary focus of our change-methodology. Whilst they may be capable of affecting localised change, leaders certainly cannot control or predict the wider or longitudinal responses to it, and making sense is generally only possible in retrospect.
It’s been said many times: system leadership is a collective endeavour. In practice however, this never involves marching in regular fashion to a single tune. Accordingly, a greater maturity is called for in how we ‘lead’ health systems, in all of their diversity, disorder and discordance. Indeed, it may very well be that the parts we least control represent our best hopes for the future.
Jem Peel is a leadership and organisational development practitioner, working across a variety of sectors and industry; supporting leaders, boards and teams to make a positive and sustainable difference to staff, service users and the wider system. (See more: http://www.everythingisconnected.co.uk/)
Rob Sheffield
Rob Sheffield is a leadership and innovation facilitator, working in healthcare, energy and education. He helps groups break from current habits and develop creative approaches that bring sustainable value to their stakeholders. (See more: https://bluegreenlearning.com/)
This is a re-blog from Richard Bolden on the ILA blog in which he discusses the challenges facing higher education leadership and asks those of us working in HE to reflect on what we can do to reclaim our role(s) and responsibilities as leaders in our organizations.
I have spent the past two and a half decades working as a leadership researcher and educator in UK universities. Throughout much of this time I have studied leadership in higher education (HE) as well as experiencing it first-hand. I have taken on leadership roles — both formal and informal — and have witnessed the trials and tribulations of colleagues as they have endeavoured to navigate the complexities of this context. In this article I share reflections on what I have learnt, why it matters, and what we can (all) do to enhance the quality and inclusiveness of leadership in this important sector.
Why Higher Education Leadership Matters
To begin it’s worth considering why HE matters for leadership theory, practice, and development. My own interest in researching leadership in this context was sparked by early work on distributed leadership in schools (e.g., Gronn, 2003; Spillane et al., 2004). HE provided an obvious testbed for exploring how such ideas might apply to other educational settings — particularly those with more complex structures, cultures, identities, and performance outcomes. Although there is fairly widespread agreement that the key purpose of effective school leadership is to improve pupil outcomes (Leithwood et al., 2006), the same does not apply to universities. Whilst student outcomes are undoubtably important metrics — and if you are a student, parent, or potential employer, perhaps the ones that concerns you most — this is not the only criterion by which HE institutions (and their staff) are evaluated. Another essential area of activity for universities is research — typically assessed in terms of “high quality” publications as well as by the volume of funding secured. Alongside this are agendas for external engagement and impact, not to mention the very real concerns of keeping universities running as viable businesses. Together, the diversity of stakeholders and priorities in HE produces a complex and contested environment where people and organizations may feel pulled in different directions. Such issues are not unique to HE but do make it an interesting context in which to study leadership, with important insights for emerging areas of scholarship, including complexity leadership (Uhl Bien, 2021), paradoxical leadership (Smith, et al., 2016) and collective leadership (Ospina et al., 2020).
At the center of any analysis of leadership is the interconnection between purpose, values, and identity, yet the somewhat schizophrenic nature of academia disrupts these dynamics in ways that can produce a sense of disenchantment, disengagement, and alienation. The HE system (in the UK and elsewhere) is founded on competing values systems — emphasizing both normative aspects (such as public service, professional autonomy, collegial practice, and traditions) and utilitarian principles (such as profit-making, corporate management, customer service, and change), such that a university “considers itself (and others consider it), alternatively, or even simultaneously, to be different types of organisations” (Albert & Whetten, 1985, p. 270).
The hybrid nature of HE poses particular challenges for leaders trying to establish credibility and legitimacy in the eyes of those they seek to influence, as different stakeholders identify “more with members of their own subcultures rather than as members of the university” (Winter & O’Donohue, 2012, p. 566). This is particularly true of academics who, as knowledge workers, carry professional identities and affiliations that extend well beyond their immediate employer. Whilst these, and other factors, make HE a particularly rich and rewarding context in which to study leadership there remains surprisingly little robust empirical research in this area and the HE leadership literature tends to be fragmented according to the perspectives and ideologies of different groups (Macfalane, et al., 2024).
Crisis, What Crisis?
The conceptual complexities of leadership in HE may, in part, help explain some of the difficulties facing the sector. Universities were particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic (PWC, 2021) and whilst the immediate crisis may have passed, it has exposed deep-seated issues that have (by and large) remained below the surface for many years. In particular, accounts of “toxic” management are linked to widescale dissatisfaction, industrial action, and recruitment challenges in the sector (Watermeyer et al., 2021).
In a series of focus groups conducted as part of a project for Advance HE in Sept-Dec 2021 colleagues and I asked participants about the shifting context of global higher education (Watermeyer et al., 2022). Five key areas — policy, society, funding, students, and staff — were highlighted as impacting perceptions, experiences, and practices of leadership in contemporary HE. While the specifics of contextual issues varied between institutions and countries, there was strong agreement across the groups that current changes are producing tensions and challenges that are hard to resolve, as outlined in the following quote from a participant in Roundtable 1 with Heads of Departments and Deans.
“What we’ve seen… is this need [to]be agile and really responding to what is happening, straight now, but at the same time be someone who is looking ahead, at the same time as somebody who has that emotional intelligence to deal with not only their student population who is changing dramatically, but the needs of our staff and our whole pedagogy is changing? What do leaders need to do? How do they need to act? How do they need to be?” (p. 27).
In Britain, declining numbers of international students are putting huge pressures on a funding system dictated by government such that a third of universities are estimated to be trading at a deficit (Jenkins, 2023). In such circumstances it is hardly surprising that “bottom-line” financial performance metrics are of primary concern to senior institutional leaders, as are ranking schemes that determine the relative attractiveness of institutions to potential students.
Such measures, however, tend to be of far less significance to academics themselves in terms of what motivates and inspires them to work in HE. The growing divide between academics and managers is reported to be fueling extensive discontent within the sector, as indicated by unprecedented levels of industrial action across the UK (and elsewhere) throughout 2023 and reports of a “great resignation” (Ross, 2022).
Follower Perspectives on Leadership in Higher Education
Within the Advance HE scoping study mentioned earlier, participants were asked to identify “what new or future leadership skills/competencies/behaviours are required within your organisation, professional area and/or wider sector?” Thematic coding identified 11 categories, which were incorporated into a subsequent survey completed by 553 respondents from around the World (Neves & Parkin, 2023). Figure 1 shows the proportion of respondents who strongly agreed that these qualities were important for good leaders within HE, as well as the extent to which they felt they demonstrated these qualities themselves (when leading) or observed these qualities within the people they were expected to follow (being led).
Figure 1 – Chart based on those who “agree strongly” with each statement — the top point on a five-point agreement scale. Ranked in order of whether a good leader should have these qualities (Neves & Parkin, 2023: 9) [Reproduced with permission from Advance HE]
There is a clear pattern within the data, whereby good HE leaders are expected to be adaptable, collaborative, credible, authentic, inclusive, and self-reflective (with compassion also ranked highly). Participants rated their own capacity moderately highly on each of these qualities (albeit it consistently lower than the ideal). The most striking finding from this graph, however, is the huge gap between each of these rankings and perceptions of those people currently in leadership roles.
Follower perspectives (“being led”) suggest a gulf in expectations and experiences of leadership. Whilst it should be noted that there is no evidence to suggest that these negative assessments are reflective of the actual skills/qualities of senior leaders (indeed it is quite possible that many of these people are amongst those who rated their own capacity moderately highly) it highlights a significant issue to which senior leaders would be advised to pay attention.
Reclaiming Leadership in Higher Education
Follower-centric perspectives on leadership stress the importance of building strong relationships between leaders and followers that are founded on trust, respect, and a shared sense of purpose. The evidence outlined above suggests that this is not the experience of many people currently working in HE — a situation that has significant implications for the sector.
If we continue along the current trajectory the chances are that HE may slip into terminal decline (Fleming, 2021). A chasm between the values and priorities of those in formal leadership and management roles and those of academics involved in teaching, research, and/or external engagement will lead to further disillusionment with the academic profession and a corresponding deterioration in the quality and significance of academic work. This is a trend that has been well documented in critiques of neoliberalism and new public management in universities. So, what might we as academics (with or without management responsibilities) do to improve the situation?
First, we should acknowledge our rights and responsibilities as “citizens of the academic community” (Bolden et al., 2014) to play an active role in the governance of our HE institutions and the wider sector. Disengagement, whilst understandable, leaves space and opportunities for toxic management to thrive and may render us complicit in the process.
Second, as part of this we would do well to create and sustain spaces for critical and constructive debate around the nature and purpose(s) of HE in contemporary society. Whilst this should allude to and promote core values (such as academic freedom) it should also engage with the very real challenges facing many universities around financial sustainability and market position. Only through an honest and open dialogue can we hope to transcend the current fractures that characterize the sector.
Third, we need to ensure that a plurality of voices, perspectives, and lived experience infuse HE policy and practice. Genuine inclusion needs to be put at the heart of the educational mission of universities and used as a driver for continuity and/or change within the sector (see Bolden et al., 2019 for a similar argument about healthcare).
Fourth, we should rebuild our sense of community — to develop human relationships that have been fractured during the COVID pandemic, to mentor and support one another, and to celebrate collegiality and collective endeavour.
And fifth, we should find ways of (re)energizing and (re)inspiring current and future academics to embrace the privilege and opportunities of working in a sector that has such a huge impact on the lives of so many. Education and research are vehicles for individual and collective transformation and change and are the primary mechanisms through which we are likely to address global challenges such as climate change.
In relation to the last of these I was inspired by a recent LinkedIn post by colleague that reiterated his passion for the job (see below). As we reflect on the year that’s passed and consider the year ahead, I urge each of us to think on what WE can do and how, in our own (small) way, we can reclaim our role(s) and responsibilities as leaders in higher education.
Another term draws to a close 🌱
Each year, as September rolls around I always find myself thinking “I hope that I still love teaching and learning as much this year”. The sign that I finish off the term being simultaneously proud of students; grateful for the opportunity to be a small part of their journey; inspired by conversations; excited by the content; and sad for it to be over is a good one.
It’s no doubt that our world faces multiple crises, and that will continue, but being in this environment fills me with hope that generations want to understand what is happening in our landscape and want to put good into the world. Spending the time to delve into the human condition and understand new possibilities is what university is all about, and why I love this job.
So – here’s to accepting the feeling of sadness as a term draws to a close, but hope for what comes next 🌱
Albert, S., & Whetten, D.A. (1985). Organizational Identity. In L.L. Cummings & M.M. Staw (Eds), Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol. 7 (pp. 263‒295). JAI Press.
Bolden, R., Gosling, J., & O’Brien, A. (2014). Citizens of the Academic Community: A Societal Perspective on Leadership in UK Higher Education. Studies in Higher Education, 39(5), 754-770. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2012.754855
Macfalane, B., Bolden, R., & Watermeyer, R. (2024) [Forthcoming]. Three Perspectives on Leadership in Higher Education: Traditionalist, Reformist and Pragmatist. Higher Education. https://link.springer.com/journal/10734
Ospina, S.M., Foldy, E.G., Fairhurst, G.T., & Jackson, B. (2020). Collective Dimensions of Leadership: Connecting Theory and Method. Human Relations, 73(4), 442-463. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726719899714
Spillane, J.P., Halverson, R., & Diamond, J.B. (2004). Towards a Theory of Leadership Practice: A Distributed Perspective. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 36(1), 3-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/0022027032000106726
Uhl-Bien, M. (2021). Complexity Leadership and Followership: Changed Leadership in a Changed World. Journal of Change Management, 21(2), 144-162. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697017.2021.1917490
Watermeyer, R., Shankar, K., Crick, T., Knight, C., McGaughey, F., Hardman, J., Suri, V., Chung, R., & Phelan, D. (2021). ‘Pandemia’: A Reckoning of UK Universities’ Corporate Response to COVID-19 and Its Academic Fallout. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 42(5-6), 651-666. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2021.1937058
Winter, R.P., & O’Donohue, W. (2012). Academic Identity Tensions in the Public University: Which Values Really Matter? Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 34(6), 565-573. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2012.716005
Dr Selen Kars is a valued member of BLCC, an Associate Professor in Organisation Studies. Her research seeks to understand how entrepreneurs, leaders and organisations develop their capabilities for sustainable futures. Some of her notable research includes her work on ‘Unleadership’ developing leaderly capacity of people that are not in formal leadership roles.
The Creative Dilemma
The shift from physical to digital media has reshaped how creative work is produced and consumed. It has opened up unparalleled opportunities for creative practitioners to connect directly with their audience and sell their creations, bypassing traditional intermediaries.
In this evolving landscape, careers in creative industries are now largely individually navigated. Creative practitioners are often self-employed or freelancing, even running their own businesses. In the UK, for example, creative practitioners are three times more likely to be self-employed than people in other fields. This change means that artists now need to embrace a more entrepreneurial approach to building and sustaining their careers.
To stay afloat and thrive, creative practitioners must actively seek, create and exploit opportunities. This involves everything from branding themselves and their creations, coming up with new creations to sell, finding ways to market and sell their creations, networking, strategizing for and securing revenue, and navigating negotiations with various stakeholders, such as agents, funders, commissioners, lawyers.
However, entrepreneurship continues to be a significant source of confusion and controversy among creative practitioners who may feel that embracing entrepreneurship might compromise their artistic integrity. Previous research identified an ongoing tension between routinely engaging in seemingly entrepreneurial activities while, on the other, being resistant to seeing these activities, or themselves, in any way entrepreneurial, because the figure of an entrepreneur is often linked to ultra-capitalist creed.
The Research
Considering the intensifying discourse of entrepreneurship in the UK economy, popular culture, as well as in the higher education, how young creative practitioners perceive their work and roles? Do they consider themselves entrepreneurial? How do they reconcile their identities as artists, freelancers, and business owners?
. . . How (do) young creative practitioners perceive their work and roles? . . . How do they reconcile their identities as artists, freelancers, and business owners?
They used a creative research method called reflexive audio-visual ethnography (RAVE). RAVE uses film to prompt discussions that help participants reveal their experiences and worldviews.
For this research, Selen and Adrienne worked with filmmaker Matty Feurtado who produced a short ethnographic film, titled Liminal Artists, for which he interviewed and captured the work of freelance artists. The film was then screened to UWE students in a focus group setting. Their reactions and responses were, in turn, recorded and incorporated into the film.
The Film
The film breaks down the romanticised image of the artist as a bohemian character. It acknowledges the internal struggle between artistic passion and entrepreneurial drive, highlighting the complex relationship between being an artist and an entrepreneur. While the film shows that these young creatives recognise the business and commercial aspects of their work, they’re still hesitant to label themselves as entrepreneurs. They perceive entrepreneurship as a necessary evil, an imposition, something they were ‘pushed’ to sustain their independence and to fulfil their creative urgency of producing art.
This reluctance also stems from the lack of entrepreneurial training in their education, leading to a resistance towards the world of business, its language, and all the related activities. Selen and Adrienne’s research underscores the need for educators to equip creative students with essential entrepreneurial skills, acknowledging that these capabilities are crucial in today’s creative landscape.
In a world where creativity and commerce intertwine, this research emphasises that framing creative work as entrepreneurial misrepresents their activities through an overemphasis on the economic dimensions of their work at the expense of the cultural. The film brings to light the delicate balance between economic and cultural dimensions of their work, urging us to rethink how we perceive and support young creative practitioners.
Future Projects
Future Projects
Selen works with organisations of all scales across many sectors delivering leadership development programmes and facilitating organisational interventions, with a specific focus on instilling climates for learning and innovation and identifying practices for effectively engaging and empowering communities to enable change. She is also currently the principal investigator on a research project funded by British Academy Leverhulme trust exploring digital capability development. If you want to discuss organisation development interventions, please get in touch with Selen.
Richard Longman joined The Open University in 2023 after four years at UWE Bristol. His interests emerge from alternative theories and practices of organising, particularly those which enable more equitable, diverse, and inclusive organisations. He currently serves as Chair of the CMS Division of the Academy of Management. In this article he reviews the launch of Doing Academic Careers Differently: Portraits of Academic Life, edited by Sarah Robinson, Alexandra Bristow, and BLCC’s Olivier Ratle.
There are numerous reasons one might choose not to attend a book launch. It could be due to a lack of interest in books, indifference toward the authors, or even ambivalence regarding the topic. Yet, it’s difficult to associate any of these reasons with the launch event of Doing Academic Careers Differently: Portraits of Academic Life, edited by Sarah Robinson, Alexandra Bristow, and BLCC’s Olivier Ratle. The event, jointly hosted by CMS InTouch and the Critical Careers Network, went beyond the ordinary, unveiling the story behind this unique collaboration. Just as the book reimagines academic careers, the launch itself was a departure from the conventional.
“When UK academia and the academic profession is in crisis, the reflections and testimonies in this book are and should be an inspiration to many.”
The book, born out of a decade’s worth of research into contemporary academia, aimed to provide a platform for diverse visions of ‘an alternative, more nurturing, diverse, and inclusive academia’ (p.1). The editors were pleasantly overwhelmed by the response to their open call for contributions, receiving an abundance of submissions from academics around the world, spanning from those pursuing their PhDs to those well into their post-retirement years. The result is a collection of 46 individual and group self-portraits, offering glimpses into the careers of 82 academics. Departing from the traditional chapter structure, the book employs a captivating “gallery” metaphor, arranging the portraits like an art exhibit, where diverse narratives of meandering, transgressing, nurturing, and belonging find a space alongside stories of haunting, precarity, and inclusivity. Readers are guided through this journey with the aid of a beautiful gallery map by artist Joe Latham.
About academic careers done differently.
The portraits within the book are a rich source of insight for individuals exploring, initiating, or advancing in their academic careers. They boldly challenge the neoliberal expectations imposed on academia, advocating for a range of approaches: rejecting the pressure to focus solely on one major pursuit, emphasising the value of nurturing and care, transcending traditional disciplinary boundaries, reshaping daily routines, engaging with communities, and adopting academic roles that extend beyond formal academia. These portraits diverge from the polished public personas often presented, revealing the messy tensions and conflicts inherent in power dynamics, notions of virtue, beauty, wealth, and other qualities attributed to the subjects. As I reflect on the self-portrait I might have offered, I find resonance in the experiences shared by others: entering academia later in life, resisting abusive management, forging unconventional paths, managing hidden physical challenges, and maintaining hope for a brighter future.
Launched differently.
The launch event itself was a departure from the norm. In creating space for academics to candidly reveal their professional highs and lows, the launch moved away from the typical “heroic exegesis” model. The editors adopted a curatorial approach, inviting attendees to explore the gallery freely, replicating the experience of walking through an art exhibition. Like traditional curators, the editors provided context, interpretation, and critical insights into the exhibited works. This was not a moment for editorial self-promotion; many contributors were given a voice through written quotes or videos. The passion invested in the project was palpable, extending to the publisher, Terry Clague from Routledge. While many academics speak about deviating from the norm, this book launch turned those words into action, showcasing the transformational power of embracing new approaches.
“I find each portrait pairs well with a double shot of espresso. We often misjudge a text’s potential to inform and inspire based on its length – yet I find many of the portraits to be precious jewels…”
In a departure from the norm for academic texts, Doing Academic Careers Differently: Portraits of Academic Life sits on my coffee table. I find each portrait pairs well with a double shot of espresso. We often misjudge a text’s potential to inform and inspire based on its length – yet I find many of the portraits to be precious jewels. Unsurprisingly, the book has received widespread acclaim, being described as “courageous” (Ghazal Zulfiqar, LUMS, Pakistan), “enthralling” (Alessia Contu, UMass Boston, USA), and “a must-read book for new and experienced academics” (Rafael Alcadipani, FGV-EAESP, Brazil).
This book has spurred a special issue in Management Learning, aiming for more critical, empowering, inclusive, and creative approaches to careers. The book showcases an alternative, demonstrating that despite attempts by managerial aspects of academia to dominate, we can resist the demands for conformity, functionalism, and individualism. Instead, we can engage in the meaningful practice of crafting academic careers in ways that resonate with our unique identities and aspirations.
Olivier Ratleis a dedicated academic known for advocating and promoting pluralism within the realm of management studies. His research focuses on the importance of nurturing and safeguarding diverse philosophical, methodological, and theoretical approaches in academia. He actively investigates the politics of methodology in management research, shedding light on the cultural authority of certain research methods and their impact on society. Olivier also explores the challenges faced by early-career academics in the current academic landscape, emphasizing their potential for positive change within organizations. Additionally, his work contributes to the emerging field of critical career studies, challenging traditional career paradigms. Olivier Ratle’s co-edited book, “Doing Academic Careers Differently: Portraits of Academic Life” is a significant milestone in this endeavour.
You can purchase a copy of Doing Academic Careers Differently: Portraits of Academic Life through the publishers site or get in touch with him directly for more information or potential collaboration queries
A member of BLCC with an impressive portfolio of experience Dr. Arthur Turner is well renowned both in research and industry circles. This wealth of experience and knowledge has lead him to writing The Theory and Practice of Creative Coaching; a book for practitioners and researchers alike.
In this blog Arthur sits down to discuss the inspiration behind his recent book, and, more generally, his coaching practices. In his book, he discusses how to break free from routine coaching, embrace creativity, connectivity, and the use of nature as a powerful tool for development.
What motivated you to write this book on creative coaching and to explore new approaches in coaching individuals in organizations and communities?
I would often get approached by colleagues to discuss the topic of coaching in a professional environment, and as researchers and academics, they would ask for books or sources that they could refer to, read and, ultimately reference. As things were, although there was some research available the information was sporadic and dispersed and not held together in one place. There wasn’t a source that collated this information. I was encouraged by colleagues to write something that could be used by researchers and practitioners alike, and so I decided that I should write a book that would meet that need.
I could articulate many starting points began the development content of this book to a lot of different things, but I like to say that it all started with a finger puppet. My son had left a Dr. Che Guevara finger puppet (The Cuban revolutionary) the fridge at home. It had been gifted to him by a company he worked for at the time. I thought how novel this little puppet was and how something so simple can give a strong likeness to a historic figure and provoke so many disparate thoughts and ideas.
. . . I realized that there was immense value in allowing people to use such imaginative tools to rephrase their situations or circumstances in voices that aren’t their own . . .
I looked up the company that made the puppet and saw they made hundreds of these historical figure finger puppets. From that, I wondered what could be accomplished with objects such as this puppet ( I later started to call them mediating objects See Martha Brauer’s work in 2016) and began to explore the possibilities. This simple finger puppet sparked an idea about the power of creative techniques in coaching. I realized that there was immense value in allowing people to use such imaginative tools to rephrase their situations or circumstances in voices that aren’t their own. Allowing the mentee to use Frieda Kahlo, for example, to explain a concept to Barack Obama expanded their own understanding and opened them up to alternative thinking.
This approach taps into different perspectives, fostering a deeper understanding of topics and developing creative problem-solving skills that might not have been accessible otherwise. The finger puppet served as a catalyst for exploring innovative coaching methods that draw on creativity, imagination, and diverse viewpoints to enhance the coaching experience for both coaches and their clients.
You have mentioned that sources of inspiration you drew from, spanned from philosophy and the joys of nature, are you able to elaborate on these and how they influenced the development of the book’s content?
A lot of the book was written during pandemic and during lockdown, one of the few positive things that came out if the pandemic, for me, was the realisation on how much nature healed, being within and part of a natural environment was to enhance wellbeing.
In coaching, for example, I noticed how quickly someone would make connections between their environment and their situation.
I have found if you walk through an environment with somebody you begin to find that the environment around you leads the conversation, asks the questions – for example, a client and I walked along the river in Newport as the tide was coming out, we were walking past ancient castles, along an old Bridge, past a new housing estate and all the time the river was going in and out. Then the person I was coaching started talking about the ebb and flow of work; he began comparing it to the turbulence around pillars of the bridge which opened into a conversation reflecting on his situation using the nature as a tool to navigate his thoughts. Nature gave him a way to see beyond the turbulence of now and reframe his situation as an ebb to the flow to come.
This is an example of nature demonstrating the ways of how things are connected. When walking through nature you start to feel the connections around you, offering a tangible link leading to a true sense of the value of the connectiveness between each other. Knowing this value, feeling this connection can help you reframe an issue, challenge a status quo or develop a fuller opinion.
How does the book shed light on the use of creative techniques, and how do these techniques extend the possibilities for coaches and their clients?
The creative techniques I use on a day-to-day basis look at, how we can reflect on our surroundings and learn from what is around us, how we can use our all our senses to connect to an issue such as a lack of confidence, a challenge at work or a life challenge or event.
These creative techniques are in constant flow, of the ones discussed in this book I probably have 10 or so more that I use now. I have included them as a jumping-off point for coaches to build and develop their own toolkit of techniques that they can add to and archive as their own journey develops.
I believe, as in nature, we should be in positions of flex and flux, constantly in the position of bending or reflecting on what was before, what worked, what didn’t and why? We should be adaptive and listen to the needs of our client using the experience of our past techniques to build what is needed for the situation in front of us. So, the creative techniques are a reference point but not as a routine.
Lastly, what do you hope readers will take away from your book, and how do you envision it contributing to a stronger learning environment and increased diversity of coaching practices and understanding?
My vision for this book is to provide readers with the inspiration and tools they need to transform their coaching practice and approach their work differently. I want readers to build the courage and confidence to experiment with creative techniques and embrace their adaptive abilities within any given coaching situation. By making links to ways in which people engage with the world, such as art, poetry, music, and transformational objects, coaching practice can rapidly move away from rigid structures and rudimentary models.
By embracing our links with nature and the world around us through the power of creative coaching techniques this book aims to open doors for readers, empowering them to develop a diverse toolkit of techniques that can be adaptable and tailored to their clients’ unique needs. Through constant growth and reflection on past experiences, these coaching approaches will empower readers to break routine and tap into the flex and flux of the world around them. In addition, creative techniques help in group facilitation, leadership issues and team management.
As a result, I envision this book contributing to a stronger learning environment and fostering increased diversity in coaching practices. Coaches and their clients alike will benefit from this approach, enhancing their problem-solving skills, reframing issues, and ultimately achieving more meaningful and transformative coaching experiences.
More about Dr. Arthur Turner
Arthur was a Visiting Fellow at the University of South Wales (2014 – 2019) and is a Senior Lecturer at the University of the West of England. He has, in the past, been an Executive Board Member of the International Foundation for Action Research and a Recognized Teacher for the University of Ulster.
He completed his Doctorate in Business Administration in 2013, focusing on middle manager leadership development. He is an ILM Level 7 qualified coach and mentor since 2008. Since 2017 Arthur has been the programme manager for the ILM Coaching and Mentoring qualifications at Level 5 & 7.
His expertise lies in leadership development, with a focus on space, place, pace, the role of artefacts and mediating objects, and the use of the outdoors in adult learning. Dr. Turner has worked extensively with local councils and Health Boards in Wales and England, contributing to coaching, mentoring, and facilitative learning. His research interests have led to regular conference presentations and collaboration with practitioners from various fields. He co-directed the Professional Development Centre Limited between 2010 and 2021 and now works with the same company as a Senior Advisor, dedicated to improving leadership development through coaching and action learning approaches. As further development in his interests Arthur now works in voluntary basis with Newport City Council / Cyngor Dinas Casnewydd-ar-Wysg preparing a piece of City Centre land for Local Nature Reserve status.
Turner A.F. & Norris L. (2023) Playfulness and humour in executive coaching. UWE Spotlight series. Can be accessed at: Podcast 05.01.23 Edited.mp3
Turner A.F. (2023) Two contributions in: Forbes L. & Thomas D. Professors at play playbook. Carnegie Mellon University: ETC Press
Turner A.F. (2022) Space, Place and Time. Chapter in: Developing Leaders for Real – Proven approaches that deliver impact. Edited by Gray, Gilson and Cunningham (2022) Emerald Publishing Limited
Turner A.F. (2020) Chapter 13. Silence in Coaching in The Coaching Handbook – The Complete Practitioner Guide for Professional Coaches. Editor Jonathan Passmore. Routledge, October 2020
Turner A.F (2018) Chapter 11 Use of multi-ethnic, contemporary and historical finger puppets. In: Field Guide to Leadership Development edited by Steve Kempster, Arthur F. Turner, and Gareth Edwards http://www.e-elgar.com/shop/field-guide-to-leadership-development
Turner A.F. & Norris L. (2022) Humour and playfulness and their potential use in the advancement of coaching psychology and practice. The Coaching Psychologist Vol 18 No 2 pages 30 – 41
Turner A.F. (2020) All that jazz – a paper looking at the role of music in coaching practice. The Coaching psychologist Vol. 16 No 1
Turner A.F. (2019): Silence and its role in coaching. The Coaching Psychologist Vol 15 No 1
Heneberry, P., Turner, A.F. & Pardey D. (2019) A Practitioners’ Guide to Critical Leadership. Heneberry, Turner & Pardey
