Leadership and followership identity processes: A multilevel review

A growing body of leadership literature focuses on leader and follower identity dynamics, levels, processes of development and outcomes. Despite the importance of the phenomena, there has been surprisingly little effort to systematically review the widely dispersed literature on leader and follower identity. In this review we map existing studies on a multilevel framework that integrates levels-of-the self (individual, relational and collective) with the levels-of-analysis (intrapersonal, interpersonal and group) on which leader or follower identity work takes place. We also synthesize work from multiple research paradigms, such as social psychology experimental studies, narrative accounts of leaders' identity work and field studies on antecedents, outcomes, mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions. Finally, we outline implications for leadership development and call attention to key themes we see ripe for future research

Paradoxes of creativity : examining the creative process through an antenarrative lens

Accounts of the creative process tend to be retrospective and implicitly ground the creative act within the person, the mind, the moment, the idea; in doing so, they often miss the larger sociomaterial qualities that can provide us with important insights about the social relationality and playfulness of the creative process. In this article, we examine the creative process through an antenarrative lens that we consider very useful for theorizing the creative process from a cultural and sociomaterial perspective. More specifically, we argue that ‘having an idea’ is a contextualized and embodied process that can be regarded as an antenarrative of the overall creative process. We also discuss how the paradoxical relation between the formative and sudden manifestations of the creative act can be understood through the notion of play

Understanding and Fostering Collective Ideation: An Improvisation-Based Method

Although the collective view is receiving increasing attention in research, this perspective is missing from the approaches for fostering creativity and ideation. The present study aims to fill this research gap by understanding ideation as a collective phenomenon and by introducing a novel method for fostering collective ideation. The study builds on current research on knowledge creation, collective creativity, idea generation, and collective theatrical improvisation to introduce an approach for fostering collective ideation. In addition, as a secondary goal, the study provides empirical findings about the implementation of collective ideation in 13 distinct cases. The study builds links between knowledge creation and collective theatrical improvisation and, thus, highlights social and affective aspects of collective ideation as a knowledge creation.Post-print / Final draf

Problematizing fit and survival: transforming the law of requisite variety through complexity misalignment

The law of requisite variety is widely employed in management theorizing and is linked with core strategy themes such as contingency and fit. We reflect upon requisite variety as an archetypal borrowed concept. We contrast its premises with insights from the institutional literature and commitment literature, draw propositions that set boundaries to its applicability, and review the ramifications of what we call “complexity misalignment.” In this way we contradict foundational assumptions of the law, problematize adaptation- and survival-centric views of strategizing, and theorize the role of human agency in variously complex regimes

Surviving a boundaryless creative career: the case of Oscar-nominated film directors, 1967-2014

Previous research has examined how mobility and career competencies influence success in boundaryless careers. In this study, we flip the direction of those relationships and we explore how the interplay between success and failure relates to subsequent mobility, career competencies, and career evolution through the life span. Using a biographical design, we conceptualize success and failure as critical moments that influence the unfolding of the boundaryless careers of Oscar-nominated film directors. While the dominant metaphors of boundaryless careers are those of “paths,” “ladders,” “trajectories,” and “plateaus,” our findings suggest a new metaphor: the roller coaster

Creative Leadership: Contexts and Prospects

For several years, research on creative leadership has been dispersed and fragmented across multiple strands or organizational, psychological, and sociological inquiry. Recently, Mainemelis, Kark, and Epitropaki (2015) integrated this scattered body of scientific knowledge into a multi-context model of creative leadership. In this introductory chapter, we present a brief overview of the multi-context model and the three conceptualizations of creative leadership contexts that it entails: Facilitative, Directive, and Integrative. Next, we present a brief overview of the content of each chapter in the volume. Finally, we discuss the contributions that the chapters make to the extant literature, their similarities and differences, and how future research in each of the three contexts may benefit from reflecting on how its assumptions, methods, and approaches differ from those of research conducted in the other two contexts

Introduction: Connecting Creative Leadership’s strands of research.

For several years, research on creative leadership has been dispersed and fragmented across multiple strands or organizational, psychological, and sociological inquiry. Recently, Mainemelis, Kark, and Epitropaki (2015) integrated this scattered body of scientific knowledge into a multi-context model of creative leadership. In this introductory chapter, we present a brief overview of the multi-context model and the three conceptualizations of creative leadership contexts that it entails: Facilitative, Directive, and Integrative. Next, we present a brief overview of the content of each chapter in the volume. Finally, we discuss the contributions that the chapters make to the extant literature, their similarities and differences, and how future research in each of the three contexts may benefit from reflecting on how its assumptions, methods, and approaches differ from those of research conducted in the other two contexts