Abstract
Adopting a multilingual perspective, this empirical paper explores the varied use and meanings of referents of leadership and management among 24 Welsh senior managers. We argue the importance of recognizing the linguistic imperialism of the English language – and its dominant leadership discourse of the heroic individual leader – over locally signified referents of leadership and management in other languages and discourses. At present, the lexical item leadership lacks evaluation of its relevance and meaning within other languages and multilingual contexts. We add to this gap through a discussion of research that analyses 24 Welsh senior managers’ reflections on referents of leadership and management and their varied meanings in their two official workplace languages, namely, Welsh and English. Based on the findings, we explore linguistic power dynamics represented in their reflections on this language diverse work setting and conclude with implications for the practice of leadership and management.
Highlights
Adopting a multilingual perspective, this empirical paper explores the varied use and meanings of referents of leadership and management among 24 Welsh senior managers
We could see the disassociation of arweinydd with business life as a result of the interaction of linguistic imperialism embedded historically in organisational life in Wales (Phillipson, 1992) and the colonisation of English-language based leadership discourse with masculine images that render the cultural associations of arweinydd subordinated to the stronger, competitive signification of leader
Whilst our research showed a familiar gendered reading of the lexical item leadership, it did not suggest the dominance of this discourse of leaderism (O’Reilly and Reed, 2010) but instead reflected the continued focus on managing and being a manager in the language used by our 24 participants
Summary
This empirical paper explores the varied use and meanings of referents of leadership and management among 24 Welsh senior managers. Evans and Sinclair (2015) add that leadership research needs to break apart dominant and colonising views of leadership and account for other culturally dynamic, complex patterns of leadership Both calls have been partially answered by studies taking a power, gender and diversity perspective (e.g. Collinson, 2012; Ford, 2006, 2010; Gordon, 2002; Harding et al, 2011; Muhr and Sullivan, 2013) and those exploring leadership in indigenous contexts (Bolden and Kirk, 2009; Evans and Sinclair, 2015; Julien et al, 2010; Turnbull et al, 2012; Warner and Grint, 2006) and providing linguistic analyses (Holmes, 2007; Jepson, 2010a, 2010b; Koivunen, 2007; O’Reilly and Reed, 2010; Prince, 2006)
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