Leadership Communication as Materiality, Embodiment, and Aesthetics
(2025)- Abstract
- The leadership literature has been faulted for framing leaders (and followers) as rational and disembodied information processers. This chapter presents a review of studies that go against this tendency by focusing on how materiality, embodiment, and aesthetics are involved in leadership communication. A number of different perspectives are highlighted in relation to the three focal themes, as well as various connections that exist across the themes within the literature. The studies discussed demonstrate a range of important, but often overlooked aspects of how leadership is done and how leaders are “made up,” proving the relevance of analytical approaches that allow us to zoom in on subtle aspects of leadership communication processes.... (More)
- The leadership literature has been faulted for framing leaders (and followers) as rational and disembodied information processers. This chapter presents a review of studies that go against this tendency by focusing on how materiality, embodiment, and aesthetics are involved in leadership communication. A number of different perspectives are highlighted in relation to the three focal themes, as well as various connections that exist across the themes within the literature. The studies discussed demonstrate a range of important, but often overlooked aspects of how leadership is done and how leaders are “made up,” proving the relevance of analytical approaches that allow us to zoom in on subtle aspects of leadership communication processes. Among our conclusions are that there is an overweight of research within the three focal themes based on linear understandings of communication and role-based definitions of leadership. Also, material, embodied, and aesthetic perspectives may inform leadership training and development in the future not only through theoretical inspiration, but also the use of various original practical approaches, for example methods inspired by the arts. (Less)
- Abstract (Swedish)
- The leadership literature has been faulted for framing leaders (and followers) as rational and disembodied information processers. This chapter presents a review of studies that go against this tendency by focusing on how materiality, embodiment, and aesthetics are involved in leadership communication. A number of different perspectives are highlighted in relation to the three focal themes, as well as various connections that exist across the themes within the literature. The studies discussed demonstrate a range of important, but often overlooked aspects of how leadership is done and how leaders are “made up,” proving the relevance of analytical approaches that allow us to zoom in on subtle aspects of leadership communication processes.... (More)
- The leadership literature has been faulted for framing leaders (and followers) as rational and disembodied information processers. This chapter presents a review of studies that go against this tendency by focusing on how materiality, embodiment, and aesthetics are involved in leadership communication. A number of different perspectives are highlighted in relation to the three focal themes, as well as various connections that exist across the themes within the literature. The studies discussed demonstrate a range of important, but often overlooked aspects of how leadership is done and how leaders are “made up,” proving the relevance of analytical approaches that allow us to zoom in on subtle aspects of leadership communication processes. Among our conclusions are that there is an overweight of research within the three focal themes based on linear understandings of communication and role-based definitions of leadership. Also, material, embodied, and aesthetic perspectives may inform leadership training and development in the future not only through theoretical inspiration, but also the use of various original practical approaches, for example methods inspired by the arts. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/ec414ffb-4122-4cfd-bb6f-d668c6e828e0
- author
- Wåhlin-Jacobsen, Christian Dyrlund and Larsson, Magnus LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-04-30
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- host publication
- The Routledge Handbook of Organizational Leadership Communication
- editor
- Jian, Guowei and Fairhurst, Gail T.
- edition
- 1
- pages
- 17 pages
- publisher
- Routledge
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105002207760
- ISBN
- 9781003380115
- DOI
- 10.4324/9781003380115
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- ec414ffb-4122-4cfd-bb6f-d668c6e828e0
- date added to LUP
- 2025-03-14 16:05:05
- date last changed
- 2025-06-06 04:01:04
@inbook{ec414ffb-4122-4cfd-bb6f-d668c6e828e0,
abstract = {{The leadership literature has been faulted for framing leaders (and followers) as rational and disembodied information processers. This chapter presents a review of studies that go against this tendency by focusing on how materiality, embodiment, and aesthetics are involved in leadership communication. A number of different perspectives are highlighted in relation to the three focal themes, as well as various connections that exist across the themes within the literature. The studies discussed demonstrate a range of important, but often overlooked aspects of how leadership is done and how leaders are “made up,” proving the relevance of analytical approaches that allow us to zoom in on subtle aspects of leadership communication processes. Among our conclusions are that there is an overweight of research within the three focal themes based on linear understandings of communication and role-based definitions of leadership. Also, material, embodied, and aesthetic perspectives may inform leadership training and development in the future not only through theoretical inspiration, but also the use of various original practical approaches, for example methods inspired by the arts.}},
author = {{Wåhlin-Jacobsen, Christian Dyrlund and Larsson, Magnus}},
booktitle = {{The Routledge Handbook of Organizational Leadership Communication}},
editor = {{Jian, Guowei and Fairhurst, Gail T.}},
isbn = {{9781003380115}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{04}},
publisher = {{Routledge}},
title = {{Leadership Communication as Materiality, Embodiment, and Aesthetics}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003380115}},
doi = {{10.4324/9781003380115}},
year = {{2025}},
}