Aligned with the recent stream of research on the materiality of organizing, in this article, we develop a conceptualization of leadership as a sociomaterial relationship between human and space. We join the emerging discussions on the ‘thing-ness’ of leadership and extend these by addressing how an aesthetic, sense-based and embodied knowledge constitutes the sociomateriality of leadership and organizing. With the help of a Lefebvre-inspired framework, we introduce the concept of ‘spacing leadership’ that explicates leadership as being produced in an embodied and performative process between people and space. To specify this, we thematise three aesthetically embodied categories of knowledge development – senses, feelings and memories – to depict a sociomaterial understanding of leadership and space.
BachelardG (1964) The Poetics of Space.
New York, NY:
Orion.
2.
BaradK (2003)
Posthumanist performativity: Toward an understanding of how matter comes to matter. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society28(3): 801–831.
3.
BathurstRCainT (2013)
Embodied leadership: The aesthetics of gesture. Leadership9(3): 358–377.
4.
BathurstRJacksonBStatlerM (2010)
Leading aesthetically in uncertain times. Leadership6(3): 311–330.
5.
BeyesTSteyaertC (2011)
Spacing organization: Non-representational theory and performing organizational space. Organization19(1): 45–61.
6.
BraidottiR (2002) Metamorphoses: Towards a Feminist Theory of Becoming.
Cambridge, UK:
Polity Press.
7.
ButtimerASeamonD (1980/2015) The Human Experience of Space and Place.
Abingdon, UK and New York, NY:
Routledge.
8.
BöhmG (2014) Urban atmosphere: Charting new directions for architecture and urban planning. In: BorchC (ed.) Architectural Atmospheres: On the Experience and Politics of Architecture.
Basel, Germany:
Birkhäuser, pp.42–59.
9.
CarlilePNicoliniDLangleyA, et al. (2013) How matter matters: Objects, artifacts and materiality in organization studies. In: CarlilePNicoliniDLangleyA, et al. (eds) How Matter Matters: Objects, Artifacts and Materiality in Organization Studies.
Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press, pp.1–15.
10.
CarrollBJ (2016) Leadership as identity. In: RaelinJ (ed.) Leadership-as-Practice: Theory and Application.
New York, NY:
Routledge, pp.91–109.
11.
CarrollBJLevyLRichmondD (2008)
Leadership as practice: Challenging the competency paradigm. Leadership4: 363–379.
12.
ChiaRHoltR (2006)
Strategy as practical coping: A Heideggerian perspective. Organization Studies27(5): 635–655.
13.
CleggSRKornbergerM (2006) Space, Organizations and Management Theory.
Frederiksberg C:
Liber & Copenhagen Business School Press.
14.
CrevaniL (2015)
Is there leadership in a fluid world? Exploring the ongoing production of direction in organizing. Leadership14(1): 83–109.
15.
CrevaniLEndrissatN (2016) Mapping the leadership-as-practice terrain: Comparative elements. In: RaelinJ (ed.) Leadership-as-Practice. Theory and Application.
New York, NY:
Routledge, pp.21–49.
16.
CrevaniLLindgrenMPackendorffJ (2010)
Leadership not leaders: On the study of leadership as practices and interactions. Scandinavian Journal of Management26(1): 77–86.
17.
CubaLHummonDL (1993)
A place to call home: Identification with dwelling, community, and region. Sociological Quarterly34(1): 111–131.
18.
CunliffeACouplandC (2011)
From hero to villain to hero: Making experience sensible through embodied narrative sensemaking. Human Relations65(1): 63–88.
19.
DachlerHPHoskingDM (1995) The primacy of relations in socially constructing organizational realities. In: HoskingDMDachlerHPGergenKJ (eds) Management and Organisation: Relational Perspectives.
Avebury, UK:
Ashgate, pp.1–29.
20.
DaleK (2005)
Building a social materiality: Spatial and embodied politics in organizational control. Organization12(5): 649–678.
21.
DaleKBurrellG (2008) Spaces of Organization and the Organization of Space.
Basingstoke, UK:
Palgrave Macmillan.
22.
DaleKBurrellG (2011)
Disturbing structure: Reading the ruins. Culture and Organization17(2): 107–121.
23.
DaleKBurrellG (2015) Leadership and space in 3D: Distance, dissent and disembodiment in the case of a new academic building. In: RopoASalovaaraPSauerE, et al. (eds) Leadership in Spaces and Places.
Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA:
Edward Elgar, pp.217–241.
24.
DenisJLLangleyASergiV (2012)
Leadership in the plural. The Academy of Management Annals6(1): 211–283.
25.
De PaoliDSauerERopoA (2017) The spatial context of organizations: A critique of creative spaces. Journal of Management and Organization Published online 18 September, Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2017.46.
26.
De VaujanyFXVaastE (2014)
If these walls could talk: The mutual construction of organizational space and legitimacy. Organization Science25(3): 713–731.
27.
DouglasTShamblinA (2009) The House That Built Me (Recorded by Miranda Lambert): On Revolution.
New York, NY:
Columbia Nashville.
28.
DrahtWHMcCauleyCDPalusCJ, et al. (2008)
Direction, alignment, commitment: Toward a more integrative ontology of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly19: 635–653.
29.
ElsbachKDPrattMG (2007)
The physical environment in organizations. The Academy of Management Annals1(1): 181–224.
30.
FayardALWeeksJ (2007)
Photocopiers and water-coolers: The affordances of informal interaction. Organization Studies28(5): 605–634.
31.
FeldmanMS (2016) Making process visible: Alternatives to boxes and arrows. In: LangleyATsoukasH (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Process Organization Studies.
London:
Sage, pp.625–635.
32.
FinemanS (2000) Emotion in Organizations.
London:
Sage.
33.
FisherKReiserRC (2015)
Embodied leadership: Moving from leader competencies to leaderful practices. Leadership11(3): 281–299.
34.
FordJHardyCHGilmoreS, et al. (2017)
Becoming the leader: Leadership as material presence. Organization Studies38(11): 1553–1571.
HawkinsB (2015)
Ship-shape: Materializing leadership in the British Royal Navy. Human Relations68(6): 951–971.
37.
HernesT (2004) The Spatial Construction of Organization.
Amsterdam, Netherlands:
John Benjamins.
38.
HernesT (2014) A Process Theory of Organization.
Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press.
39.
HernesTBakkenTOlsenPI (2006) Spaces as process: Developing a recursive perspective on organizational space. In: CleggSRKornbergerM (eds) Space Organizations and Management Theory.
Copenhagen, Denmark:
Liber and Copenhagen Business School Press, pp.44–63.
40.
HumphriesCSmithACT (2014)
Talking objects: Towards a post-social research framework for exploring object narratives. Organization21(4): 477–494.
41.
IntronaLD (2013) Otherness and the letting-be of becoming: Or, ethics beyond bifurcation. In: CarlilePNicoliniDLangleyA, et al. (eds) How Matter Matters: Objects, Artifacts and Materiality in Organization Studies.
Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press, pp.260–287.
42.
JonesM (2013) Untangling sociomateriality. In: CarlilePNicoliniDLangleyA, et al. (eds) How Matter Matters: Objects, Artifacts and Materiality in Organization Studies.
Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press, pp.197–226.
LadkinDTaylorSS (2010)
Enacting the ‘true self’: Towards a theory of embodied authentic leadership. Leadership Quarterly21: 64–74.
45.
LadkinDTaylorSS (2014) The Physicality of Leadership: Gesture, Entanglement, Taboo, Possibilities.
Bingley, UK:
Emerald.
46.
LangleyATsoukasH (2016) Introduction. In: LangleyATsoukasH (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Process Organization Studies.
London:
Sage, pp.1–25.
47.
LangleyASmallmanCTsoukasH, et al. (2013)
Process studies of change in organization and management: Unveiling temporality, activity, and flow. Academy of Management Journal56(1): 1–13.
48.
LatourB (2005) Reassembling the Social. An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory.
Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
49.
LefebvreH (1991) The Production of Space.
Oxford, UK:
Blackwell.
50.
LefebvreH (2004) Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life.
London:
Continuum.
51.
LeonardiPM (2013a) The emergence of materiality within formal organizations. In: CarlilePNicoliniDLangleyA, et al. (eds) How Matter Matters: Objects, Artifacts and Materiality in Organization Studies.
Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press, pp.142–170.
52.
LeonardiPM (2013b)
Theoretical foundations for the study of sociomateriality. Information and Organization23: 59–76.
53.
LinsteadSHöpflH (2000) The Aesthetics of Organization.
London, UK:
Sage.
54.
LowSMAltmanI (1992) Place Attachment: A Conceptual Inquiry.
New York:
Plenum Press.
55.
MartinPY (2002)
Sensations, bodies, and the ‘spirit of a place’: Aesthetics in residential organizations for the elderly. Human Relations55: 861–885.
56.
MasseyD (2005) For Space.
London:
Sage.
57.
MelinaLRBurgessGJFalkmanLL, et al. (2013) The Embodiment of Leadership.
San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
58.
MeretojaH (2014) The Narrative Turn in Fiction and Theory.
London:
Palgrave.
59.
Merleau-PontyM (2012) Phenomenology of Perception (Smith C, translation). New York, NY: Humanities Press.
60.
MerrifieldA (2000) Lefebvre. A socialist in space. In: CrangMThriftN (eds) Thinking Space. ProQuest Ebook Central.
Abingdon, UK and New York, NY:
Taylor and Francis, pp.167–182.
61.
MichelA (2014)
The mutual constitution of persons and organizations: An ontological perspective on organizational change. Organization Science25(4): 1082–1110.
62.
MillerD (2005) Materiality.
Durham, NC:
Duke University Press.
63.
MillerD (2008) The Comfort of Things.
Cambridge, UK:
Polity Press.
64.
ObornEBarrettMDawsonS (2013)
Distributed leadership in policy formulation: A sociomaterial perspective. Organization Studies34(2): 253–276.
OrlikowskiWJScottSV (2008)
Sociomateriality: Challenging the separation of technology, work and organization. The Academy of Management Annals2(1): 433–474.
67.
OrrJ (1995) Talking About Machines: An Ethnography of a Modern Job.
Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University Press.
68.
PallasmaaJ (2014) Space, place, and atmosphere: Peripheral perception in existential experience. In: BorchC (ed.) Architectural Atmospheres: On the Experience and Politics of Architecture.
Basel, Germany:
Birkhäuser, pp.18–41.
69.
ParryKWBrymanA (2006) Leadership in organizations. In: CleggSRHardyCLawrenceTB, et al. (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Organization Studies.
London, UK:
Sage, pp.447–468.
70.
PullenAVacchaniS (2013)
The materiality of leadership. Leadership9(3): 315–319.
71.
PuranamPAlexyOReitzigM (2014)
What’s ‘new’ about new forms of organizing?Academy of Management Review39(2): 162–180.
72.
RaelinJ (2011)
From leadership-as-practice to leaderful practice. Leadership7(2): 195–211.
73.
RaelinJ (2016) Leadership-as-Practice. Theory and Application.
New York, NY:
Routledge.
74.
RedekopB (2010) Leadership for Environmental Sustainability.
New York, NY and London, UK:
Routledge.
75.
RiessmanC (2008) Narrative Methods for Human Sciences.
Thousand Oaks:
Sage.
RopoAParviainenJ (2001)
Leadership and bodily knowledge in expert organizations: Epistemological rethinking. Scandinavian Journal of Management17(1): 1–18.
78.
RopoAParviainenJKoivunenN (2002) Aesthetics in leadership: From absent bodies to social bodily presence. In: MeindlJParryK (eds) Grounding Leadership Theory and Research: Issues and Perspectives.
Greenwich, CT:
Information Age Publishing, pp.21–38.
79.
RopoASalovaaraPSauerE, et al. (2015) Leadership in Spaces and Places.
Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA:
Edward Elgar.
80.
RopoASauerE (2008) Corporeal leaders. In: BarryDHansenH (eds) The SAGE Handbook of New Approaches in Management and Organization.
London:
Sage, pp.469–478.
81.
RopoASauerESalovaaraP (2013)
Embodiment of leadership through material place. Leadership9(3): 378–395.
82.
SalovaaraP (2014)
Video: Leadership in spaces and places. Organizational Aesthetics3(1): 79–79.
83.
SalovaaraPRopoA (2013) Embodied learning experience in leadership development. In: MelinaRLFalkmanLLMarturanoA (eds) The Embodiment of Leadership.
San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass, pp.
193–215. [Mismatch]
84.
SalovaaraPRopoA (2018) Lefebvre and spacing leadership: From power-over to power-with. In: KingmaSDaleKWassermanV (eds) Organizational Space and Beyond: The Significance of Henri Lefebvre for Organizational Studies.
London:
Routledge. In press.
85.
SeamonD (1979/2015) A Geography of the Lifeworld.
Abingdon, UK and New York, NY:
Routledge.
86.
SergiV (2016) Who’s leading the way? Investigating the contributions of materiality to the study of leadership-as-practice. In: RaelinJ (ed.) Leadership-as-Practice: Theory and Applications.
New York, NY:
Routledge, pp.110–131.
87.
SinclairA (2005)
Body possibilities in leadership. Leadership1(4): 387–406.
88.
SinclairA (2013)
The material dean. Leadership9(3): 436–443.
89.
PullenAVachhaniS (2013) Special Issue on: ‘The Materiality of Leadership', Leadership 9(3): 315–443.
90.
SpringbornC (2010)
Leadership as art – Leaders coming to their senses. Leadership6(3): 243–258.
91.
SquireC (2013) From experience-centred to socioculturally-oriented approaches to narrative. In: AndrewsMSquireCTamboukouM (eds) Doing Narrative Research.
London:
Sage, pp.47–71.
92.
StratiA (1999) Organization and Aesthetics.
London, UK:
Sage.
93.
StratiA (2007)
Sensible knowledge and practice-based learning. Management Learning38(1): 61–77.
94.
SymonGPritchardK (2015)
Performing the responsive and committed employee through the sociomaterial mangle of connection. Organization Studies36(2): 241–263.
95.
TaylorSSpicerA (2007)
Time for space: A narrative review of research on organizational spaces. International Journal of Management Reviews9(4): 325–346.
TuanYF (1977) Space and Place. The Perspective of Experience.
Minneapolis, MN:
University of Minnesota Press.
98.
van MarrewijkAYanowD (2010) Organizational Spaces Rematerializing the Workaday World.
Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA:
Edward Elgar.
99.
WassermanWFrenkelM (2015)
Spatial work in between glass ceilings and glass walls: Gender–class intersectionality and organizational aesthetics. Organization Studies36(11): 1485–1505.
100.
WoodM (2005)
The fallacy of misplaced leadership. Journal of Management Studies42(6): 1101–1121.
101.
WoodMSalovaaraPMartiL (2018) Manifesto for screen production in organisation studies. Organization. Epub ahead of print 10 January 2018. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508417749886
102.
YanowD (2010) Giving voice to space: Academic practices and the material world. In: van MarrewijkaYanowD (eds) Organizational Spaces: Rematerializing the Workaday World.
Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA:
Edward Elgar, pp.139–158.
103.
ZhangZ (2006)
What is lived space?Ephemera6(2): 219–223.
104.
ZhangZSpicerA (2014)
‘Leader, you first’: The everyday production of hierarchical space in a Chinese bureaucracy. Human Relations67(6): 739–762.
