How to be a hero: How managers determine what makes a good manager through narrative identity work

Abstract

The turn to identity within management studies has revealed important insights into management, by recognising its complex, contingent and relational nature, and through focusing on the personal experiences of managers and how they develop an identity as a manager. However, research has focused on processes of being and becoming a manager, rather than how individuals determine what makes a good manager, and what they are actually seeking to be. I therefore present an extended theorisation of narrative identity work which highlights the overlooked role of the ‘personal social landscape’ constructed through narrative, which gives meaning to the actors and actions within it. The theory is illustrated through detailed analysis of three manager accounts, which reveals processes by which managers construct personal versions of the same organisation, as social landscape to their self-narratives, and how these different organisational constructions create different meanings to their self-narratives as acting well as a manager.

Be(com)ing other-oriented: Mindfulness-trained leaders’ experiences of their enhanced social awareness

“…As Rudolph et al (2021) note, in times of uncertainty followers rely on their supervisors' support more than ever, and the improvement of leaders' attitudes, values, and behaviors have been listed as key focus areas to be integrated into future leadership development programs. Thus, our study shows that for leaders, mindfulness is a personal and timely vehicle for internalizing the constantly shifting expectations attached to good leadership (Guthey et al, 2022;Rooney et al, 2021;Rostron, 2022). Mindfulness practice can help leaders make sense of their experience and express their other-oriented thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in a thoughtful way that better meets the expectations for value-based, ethical leadership norm (Ciulla and Forsyth, 2011;Guthey et al, 2022).…”

“…The content of a first-person description is always directly linked to the lived, conscious experience of a human who experiences it as subjectively relevant and for which the subjective self, the first person, can provide an account (Goldman-Schuyler et al, 2017; Varela and Shear, 1999). By investigating the leader’s personal experience in a specific context, management research can respond to questions concerning the internalized role and the development of an individual leader (Rostron, 2022). Thus, the perceptions and experiences of the leaders were probed in this study.…”

“…Day and Dragoni, 2015; Day et al, 2021). Being, or becoming, a good leader is a question of the right skills, competencies, and practices (Rostron, 2022). Social skills and abilities relevant for a leader would include building relationships, managing communication and conflict, and developing others; However, as the perceptions and personal experiences of a leader shape how they identify and act as a leader, a leader also requires skills related to self-views (one’s self-concept and views of oneself) in the form of self-awareness and social awareness (Day et al, 2014, 2021; Kwok et al, 2021; Rooney et al, 2021; Rostron, 2022).…”

On the Neglect of Fallibility in Management Learning and Education: From Perfect to Adequate Managers

“…Reflecting this broader denial of fallibility, as outlined above, it is also silenced in dominant managerial discourses (Deslandes, 2020) which, fuelled by contemporary grandiose preoccupations with leadership (Ford & Harding, 2007), work to depict managers as infallible, all knowing, always right, super heroic miracle workers (Hay, 2014;Rostron, 2022). On a superficial level, dominant understandings might be viewed as functional since they provide an illusory comfort when faced with the lived ambiguity and unpredictability of managerial work, which brings managers face to face with their fallibility and its associated unsettling.…”

“…Dominant managerial discourses are implicitly characterized by themes of perfectionism and infallibility, such that managers are expected to be all knowing, always right, in control and ultimately successful (Corlett, Mavin, & Beech, 2019;Hay, 2014;Rostron, 2022). This stands in sharp contrast to the lived experiences of managing where "given the complexities and ambiguities of processes of organizing, managers are hardly able to come close to such ideals" (Schweiger, Muller, & Guttel, 2020: 414).…”