Joseph A. Raelin - Leadership-as-Practice: Theory and Application

LEADERSHIP-AS-PRACTICE

This book develops a new paradigm in the field of leadership studies, referred to as the leadership-as-practice (L-A-P) movement. Its essence is its conception of leadership as occurring as a practice rather than residing in the traits or behaviors of particular individuals. A practice is a coordinative effort among participants who choose through their own rules to achieve a distinctive outcome. It also tends to encompass routines as well as problem-solving or coping skills, often tacit, that are shared by a community. Accordingly, leadership-as-practice is less about what one person thinks or does and more about what people may accomplish together. It is thus concerned with how leadership emerges and unfolds through day-to-day experience. The social and material contingencies impacting the leadership constellationthe people who are effecting leadership at any given timedo not reside outside of leadership but are very much embedded within it. To find leadership, then, we must look to the practice within which it is occurring.

The leadership-as-practice approach resonates with a number of closely related traditions, such as collective, shared, distributed, and relational leadership, that converge on leadership processes. These approaches share a line of inquiry that acknowledges leadership as a social phenomenon. The new focus opens up a plethora of research opportunities encouraging the study of social processes beyond influence, such as inter-subjective agency, shared sensemaking, dialogue, and co-construction of responsibilities.

Joseph A. Raelin holds the Asa S. Knowles Chair of Practice-Oriented Education at Northeastern University, USA.

ROUTLEDGE STUDIES IN LEADERSHIP RESEARCH

1. Executive Team Leadership for the 21st Century

Richard L. Nolan

2. Leadership-as-Practice

Theory and application

Edited by Joseph A. Raelin

LEADERSHIP-AS-PRACTICE

Theory and Application

Edited by Joseph A. Raelin

First published 2016

by Routledge

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2016 Taylor & Francis

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Leadership-as-practice : theory and application / edited by Joseph A. Raelin.

pages cm. (Routledge studies in leadership research ; 2)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. LeadershipStudy and teaching. 2. Organizational behavior. I. Raelin, Joseph

A., 1948- editor.

HD57.7.L431645 2016

658.4'092dc23

2015029509

ISBN: 978-1-138-92485-7 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-92486-4 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-68412-3 (ebk)

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Joseph A. Raelin holds the Asa S. Knowles Chair of Practice-Oriented Education at Northeastern University where he is also Professor of Management and Organization Development in the DAmore-McKim School of Business. Joes recent work has focused on collective leadership and collaborative learning and the merger between the two. He is a prolific writer and among his books are the classics: The Clash of Cultures: Managers Managing Professionals, Work-Based Learning:Bridging Knowledge and Action in the Workplace, and Creating Leaderful Organizations:How to Bring Out Leadership in Everyone.

Brigid J. Carroll is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management and International Studies and Research Director of the New Zealand Leadership Institute both at the University of Auckland. Her research interests closely focus on identity, discourse, and power in leadership and the development of leadership practice. She is also involved in the development and design of leadership development interventions and programs in organizations across New Zealand. In this way, along with the Institute, she tries to intentionally live a theory/practice relationship.

Lucia Crevani is senior lecturer at Mlardalen University in Vsters, Sweden. Her research is focused on the study of leadership, entrepreneurship, project management, and gender and ethnicity as social processes taking place in and between organizations. Her work has been published in international journals as Scandinavian Journal of Management, Service Business, Ephemera: Theory & Politics inOrganization, and Project Management Journal. She is also co-organizer of the After Method workshops, a series of workshops focusing on the methodological challenges of studying a world of change.

Ann L. Cunliffe is 50th Anniversary Professor of Organization Studies at the University of Bradford, UK, and Visiting Professor at Escola de Administrao da Fundao Getulio Vargas, Brazil. Anns current research addresses how leaders shape responsive and ethical organizations and she publishes on qualitative research methods and reflexivity. Her recent publications include A Very Short,Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Management (2014) and articles in Organizational Research Methods, Human Relations, the Journal of Business Ethics, and the Journal of Management Inquiry. She is Co Editor-in-Chief of ManagementLearning, and organizes the biennial Qualitative Research in Management and Organization Conference.

David Denyer is Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change and Director of Research at Cranfield School of Management. His research interests include complexity leadership, organizational change and resilience, evidence-based management, and new approaches to leadership development. David helps senior leaders in a wide range of organizations to establish strategic direction and deliver sustained performance improvement. He has published a large number of important and highly cited articles and book chapters. His latest edited book is on Managing Change in Extreme Contexts (Routledge).

Nada Endrissat is a lecturer at Bern Business School, Switzerland. She has a Ph.D. in Management from Basel University and has spent research visits at HEC Montreal and MGSM Sydney. Her current research interests include processes of (creative) projects, aesthetic practices, and the interplay between branding and identity construction. Her research has been published in Leadership and is forth-coming in Organization Studies and the Journal of Business Research special issue on creative industries.

Jackie Ford is Professor of Leadership and Organization Studies at the University of Bradford, with former Professorial roles since 2008 at the Universities of Leeds and Bradford. Her research interests include the exploration of working lives, with a particular interest in studying leadership, gender, ethics, and management practices through critical, post-structural lenses. She has co-authored a mono-graph entitled