Challenging Leadership Stereotypes Through Discourse

This multidisciplinary volume brings together wide-ranging empirical research that goes behind the scenes of diverse organizations dealing with business, politics, law, media, education, and sports to unravel stereotypes of discursive leadership practices as they unfold in situ. It includes contributions that explore how leadership discourse is impacted by increasing pressures of “glocalization” (the need to communicate across cultures and languages), “mediatization” (leaving ubiquitous digital traces), standardization (with quality management programmes negotiating organizational procedures), mobility (endless fast-paced long distance synchronization) and acceleration (permanent co-adaption and change). The discussion of purposefully chosen case studies moves beyond questions of who is a leader and what leaders do, to how leadership stereotypes are being challenged in various communities of practice, and thereby making change possible. Cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approaches are used to get deeper insights into the competing, multi-voiced, controversial and complex identities and relationships enacted in leadership discourse practices.

• distributed approaches to leadership
• competitive leadership
• leadership discourse
• gender and leadership
• leadership strategies
• leadership and culture
• cultural leadership stereotypes
• wellbeing in the workplace
• leadership in political discourse
• linguistic practices of leadership
• feminist discourse analysis
• female leadership communication
• leadership, gender and storytelling

“This volume is a must-read for anyone interested in leadership discourse. Focusing on the under-researched area of stereotyping, it offers a fresh and much-needed perspective. A fascinating range of topics and data from several cultures are included from internationally-renowned researchers. This volume will be of key interest to academics and practitioners alike.” (Louise Mullany, Professor, Faculty of Arts, University of Nottingham, UK)

”A timely and highly recommendable contribution to the leadership field, clearly demonstrating the value of taking discourse seriously and exploring it in depth!” (Magnus Larsson, Associate Professor, Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark )

 “For those who feel passionately that a psychological lens is not the only way to view leadership – and that an equally viable lens positions leadership as relationally constructed in communication and through discourse, this is the book for you. Cornelia Ilie andStephanie Schnurr have edited an exciting volume of papers that grounds leadership in issues of power, context, meaning, and interaction process. Incisive analysis of leadership and other stereotypes are a focus in this book, but certainly not the only gems that readers will soon discover.” (Gail Fairhurst, Distinguished University Research Professor, University of Cincinnati, USA)         

• Malmö University, Malmö, United Arab Emirates

  Cornelia Ilie

• Centre for Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom

  Stephanie Schnurr

Cornelia Ilie is Professor of Linguistics and Rhetoric, Malmö University, Sweden

Stephanie Schnurr is Associate Professor at the Centre for Applied Linguistics, The University of Warwick, UK

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