Paradoxes of Post-heroic Leadership: Why do heroic leadership and gender inequality persist?
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2023-09-08
Author(s)
Abstract
The notion of leadership has changed dramatically over the last two decades. Particularly “post-heroic” leadership is said to be needed when it comes to approaching complex task that come with uncertainty and interdependence (Škerlavaj, 2022). However, while new leader-ship seems to discard the heroic notion of leadership, heroic leadership appears to be resilient still today (Fletcher, 2004). Furthermore, leadership is still strongly connected to masculinity. Depicting heroic leadership as masculine and post-heroic as more feminine associates gender and leadership according to the well-trodden path of the gender binary. Obviously, gender equality in leadership remains a stalled revolution as long as the power effects of hegemonic masculinity are not up for reflection and change.
How can leadership be changed and gender equality facilitated? We have explored this question in 15 group discussions with male and female leaders in Switzerland. Investigat-ing their sense-making of leadership and gender equality revealed that leaders are locked-in manoeuvring in paradoxical ways. Zooming in on the paradoxical structure of the problem of changing leadership and gender we show that both post-heroic leadership and gender equality are not so much stand-alone alternatives but embedded within heroic leadership and gender inequality respectively. Hence, agency is distributed asymmetrically, and it is the power dif-ferences that need to be taken into account more thoroughly (Berti & Simpson, 2021).
Theorizing the persistence of gender change and post heroic leadership with a paradox perspective we are contributing several important insights. First, moving to an both/and ap-proach contributes fresh insights to the literatures on promoting post-heroic leadership and the stalled revolutions of gender change. So far, the debates here heavily relied on either/or approaches that the paradox lens predicts to fail. Furthermore, and with regards to the litera-ture on paradox we are contributing an empirical example of the restrictions and possibilities that emerge when promoting a marginalized element – post-heroic leadership and gender equality – within the hegemony of masculinity and heroic leadership.
How can leadership be changed and gender equality facilitated? We have explored this question in 15 group discussions with male and female leaders in Switzerland. Investigat-ing their sense-making of leadership and gender equality revealed that leaders are locked-in manoeuvring in paradoxical ways. Zooming in on the paradoxical structure of the problem of changing leadership and gender we show that both post-heroic leadership and gender equality are not so much stand-alone alternatives but embedded within heroic leadership and gender inequality respectively. Hence, agency is distributed asymmetrically, and it is the power dif-ferences that need to be taken into account more thoroughly (Berti & Simpson, 2021).
Theorizing the persistence of gender change and post heroic leadership with a paradox perspective we are contributing several important insights. First, moving to an both/and ap-proach contributes fresh insights to the literatures on promoting post-heroic leadership and the stalled revolutions of gender change. So far, the debates here heavily relied on either/or approaches that the paradox lens predicts to fail. Furthermore, and with regards to the litera-ture on paradox we are contributing an empirical example of the restrictions and possibilities that emerge when promoting a marginalized element – post-heroic leadership and gender equality – within the hegemony of masculinity and heroic leadership.
Language
English
Event Title
New Work - New Problems? Gender Perspectives on the Transformation of Work
Event Location
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts
Event Date
07. - 08.09.23
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
open.access
Name
HSLU_Paradox_final.pdf
Size
2 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
39cc14f5acbbca7cabea69b0054f02ee