1st Edition
The Sociomateriality of Leadership A Ventriloquial Perspective
With the parallel expansion of both leadership research and the use of ventriloquism within communication studies, this book addresses the lack of connection between the two, arguing that ventriloquial analyses can add significant insights to leadership research and that leadership research can be a fruitful avenue of inquiry.
Focusing on the ventriloquial approach to organising originating from the Montreal School, which emphasizes the analyses of “actions through which someone or something makes someone or something else say or do things”, the book offers a new and exciting way of looking at the materiality of leadership. Drawing on ventriloquial analyses of naturally-occurring workplace interaction; interviews with key organisational players; and training sessions about leadership, the author posits that other-than-human actants affect many areas of leadership and organisational communication.
Offering fresh insight into leadership practice, this book will be an essential read for scholars and students of organisational communication, leadership and management.
1. Introduction
2. Leadership
3. Ventriloquism and the Montreal School
4. A Ventriloquial Approach to Leadership
5. The Research Site and Data
6. Doing Leadership
7. Talking about Leadership
8. Making up Leader Identity
9. Conclusions
Biography
Jonathan Clifton is Associate Professor at the Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, France. His research interests are centred on leadership and the analysis of workplace interaction. He has published widely in such journals as Leadership, Management Communication Quarterly, and Human Relations. He has also published several books, most notably, The Language of Leadership Narratives which was co-authored with Stephanie Schnurr and Dorien Van De Mieroop.
