Landscape of leadership : Narrating leadership through space and place

1. Landscape of leadership: Narratingleadershipthroughspace and place Arja Ropo University of Tampere Finland

2. Focus of the study and researchquestions • Leadershipnarrativesthatpeopletalk into beingwhendescribing the landscape of theirorganization • How is leadershipnarratedbyusingspatialexpressions? • Howdoesspaceconstruct and performleadership?

3. Research on place and space in organizations: threestreams • Traditional, objectiveapproach: physicalenvironmentfromarchitectural and managerialperspective (Elsbach & Pratt, 2007) • Subjectivelyorientedresearch on social space (Lefebvre, 1991; Hatch, 1997; Martin, 2002) • Critical, post-stucturalistapproachfocusing on power and politicsthatspaceforms (Foucault, 1977; Dale & Burrell, 2008)

4. Shift of interest • From an objective, managerial, and architectural approach, such as ”this is howit is planned and determined to work” • Toward understanding the symbolicmeaning of physicalspaces to social interaction, such as ”this is howitaffectspeople, howpeopleuse and interpretit”

5. Mutuallyconstitutiverelationship • The shiftproblematizes the currentclassification of physical and social spacedrawing on Cartesiandualism. • I assumethat the physicalstructuresprecede and enable, shape and areshapedby social structures. • Thismaybringforth new understandings of the relations of work, space, and leadership.

6. Relationship of leadership and space • Leadershiphasbeenstudied in variousempiricalsettings and contxts, butspace as suchhasnotbeenconceptuallytreated. • The samephysicalconditionsproducedifferentreactions (Elsbach & Pratt, 2007) • Differentspacescarrydifferentleadershipconstructions. • Leadershipseen as feltexperienceratherthan as cognitiveinfluencebetween the manager and the subordinates

7. Twonotions of leadership • Leadership as a sociallyconstructedphenomenon (Berger & Luckman, 1967) and as management of meaning (Smircich & Morgan, 1982) • Leadership as an aesthetic, bodilyphenomenon, as a sensingactivity: Leadershipoccurs and is constructednotonly in the intellectualminds, butalso in and through the sensing and experiencingbodies (e.g., Hansen, Ropo, & Sauer, 2007; Ladkin, 2008; Ladkin & Taylor, 2010; Ropo & Parviainen, 2001; Sinclair, 2005)

8. The aestheticorientation to leadership and spaceexploresfeltexperiences, symbolicmeanings and inherentpowerissueswhichspaces and placesreflect and produce. • Relationshipbetweenleadership and space is twofold: physicalplacesform and shapeleadershipconstructions and acteduponleadershipproduces social, experiencedspaces. • Physicalplacesallow, enable, encourage, and constraintorhindervariousleadershipconstructions and acteduponleadershippractice.

9. Methodology and data • Aestheticepistemologylegitimizessense-based data, such as emotions, bodilysensations, intuitions,andmentalrepresentations (Strati, 2007) • Narrativeanalysis • Photographs on organizationalspaces, written and oraldescriptions of organisationmembers on howtheyfeel the physicalspace as a place to work, interact, and as a place for leadership • Universitydepartment as a pilotstudyfocus

10. Narratingleadership in a universitydepartment • Shinyfloors in a steelbuilding • Dynamic, modern, effective • Sterile, clean, pure • Twofloors, symbolichierarchies

11. ”Facebook” of some, butnot of all

12. Where is leadershiplurking?Canyouseeit, feelit, smellit? • Behind the closedoors • In the hallways • In facultymeetings • In the coffeeroom • In the departmenthead’soffice

13. Aquarium – coffeeroomsurroundedbywindows • The furniture, colors, and the overallstyleresemble the clinicalatmosphere of the building • Young researchersgather in the coffeeroomregularly • The departmentchairnevervisits the upperlevelcoffeeroomuninvited

14. Therearerooms and thereare ROOMS

15. Peoplehavedifferentattachment to the theirofficespace

16. Somepreliminaryobservations of leadership and space • Leadership is simultaneouslyhidden and overt • Spaceperformsleadership in a paradoxicalway • Spacepresentsdifferentaffordances to leadership