The Role of Affective Encounters in Collective Leadership Processes

Abstract

With the increase of uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of organizational life, a growing number of scholars have questioned traditional leader-centric theories and claim that leadership is a relational process in which all the individuals involved actively participate. We join the discussion on collective leadership, in which leadership is understood as producing direction and creating space for collaborative action. To date, scholars have mainly examined this process by focusing on conversations. This leaves unaddressed affect as a visceral force which precedes our conscious perception and knowing, and emerges relationally between human and non-human bodies such as artifacts, ideas and discourses. In order to discuss the affective nature of collective leadership processes we offer the concept of ‘affective encounters’ to the literature on collective leadership. Our study asks: How does the concept of ‘affective encounter’ help to understand collective leadership processes? How do affective encounters contribute to the development of collective leadership in a workshop setting? Zooming in on the flow of affect, we narrate how collective leadership unfolds during the facilitated workshop of a troubled multiprofessional group. The study contributes to the discussion on collective leadership by introducing the concept of ‘encounter’ for tracing the micro-movements through which collective leadership unfolds. Further, it provides theoretical and empirical insight about the role of affect in the collective leadership process and shows how attentiveness to sociomateriality can help scholars to explore the process of collective leadership.