Discursive Leadership In Conversation With Leadership Psychology – Fairhurst

How so in the case of authentic leadership? As mentioned earlier, authentic leadership draws heavily from positive psychology (Erickson, 1995; Kernis, 2003). Seligman and Csikzentmihalyi (2000) discuss how it differs from traditional psychology: Psychology has, since World War II, become a science largely about healing. It concentrates on repairing damage within a disease model of human func- tioning. This almost exclusive attention to pathology neglects the fulfilled individual and the thriving community. The aim of positive psychology is to begin to catalyze a change in the focus of psychology from preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also building positive qualities .

. . well-being, contentment, satisfaction (in the past); hope and optimism (for the future); and flow and happiness (in the present). (p. 5) Because the keys to building life’s positive qualities are thought to rest with authenticity, some leadership psychologists are applying positive psychology Discourses to leadership in works with the not unexpected titles of Unlocking the Mask (Avolio et al., 2004), Can You See the Real Me? (Gardner et al., 2005), and Authentic Leadership and Eudaemonic Well-Being (Ilies et al., 2005).

However, in an attempt to create a body of power/knowledge that sees and normalizes lead- ership in positive terms, positive psychology Discourses legitimate portraying leader authenticity as the ego ideal. One’s authentic self is equated with virtuos- ity, as the leader is encouraged to engage in self-regulating processes to assure that he or she meets high personal standards of conduct (Gardner et al., 2005). One’s negative traits are thus deemed inauthentic or derivative, in some way, of other positive features (as when a scathing critic putatively masks a deep concern for eliciting others’ best work).

Such a view represents a clear break from psy- chology’s traditional pathology Discourses of disease in which authenticity is implicitly equated with the display of negative traits. That is, when a person’s bad mood overtakes them, the ‘real’ or ‘true’ person is thought to emerge, and the individual’s positive traits must be inauthentic or derivative in some way.

To the memory of Albert and Agnes Theus Copyright © 2007 by Sage Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,without permission in writing from the publisher. For information: Sage Publications, Inc.

2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 E-mail: [email protected] Sage Publications Ltd. 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP United Kingdom Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd. B-42, Panchsheel Enclave Post Box 4109 New Delhi 110 017 India Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fairhurst, Gail Theus Discursive leadership : in conversation with leadership psychology / Gail Fairhurst.

p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-4129-0424-7 (cloth) ISBN-13: 978-1-4129-0425-4 (pbk.) 1. Leadership. I. Title. HM1261.F35 2007 303.3′4—dc22 2006027189 This book is printed on acid-free paper. 07 08 09 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Acquisitions Editor: Todd R. Armstrong Editorial Assistant: Sarah K. Quesenberry Production Editor: Libby Larson Copy Editor: Teresa Herlinger Typesetter: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd.

Proofreader: Word Wise Webb Indexer: Molly Hall Cover Designer: Bryan Fishman Contents Preface vii Chapter 1. Two Traditions 1 Defining Leadership 4 Defining Discourse 6 The Case for Discursive Leadership 8 The Path Forward 17 Chapter 2. Sequence and Temporal Form 23 Act, Interact, Double Interact 25 Turn Taking, Adjacency Pairs 29 Narrative Schemas, Episodes 32 Scripts 38 Script Formulations 41 A Backward Glance—Final Thoughts 44 Chapter 3.

Membership Categorization 49 Membership Categorization Defined 50 Categories and Organizational Coordination 52 Categories and Organizational Role/Identity 54 Categories, Sensemaking, and Meaning Management 56 Categories and Social Structuring 62 Categories in Task Structuring 66 A Backward Glance—Final Thoughts 71 Chapter 4. Disciplinary Power 75 A Primer on Foucault 76 Discipline and Surveillance in Performance Management Technologies 83 Performance Management Governmentality 90 A Backward Glance—Final Thoughts 92 Chapter 5.

Self-Identities, Interpretative Repertoires 97 The ‘Self’ in Leadership Psychology and Discursive Leadership 97 Interpretative Repertoires and Subject Positioning 109 A Backward Glance—Final Thoughts 114 Chapter 6. Narrative Logics 119 Leader–Member Exchange Theory 119 The Narrative Basis of LMX 121 A Backward Glance—Final Thoughts 137 Chapter 7.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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