Collinson, David (2024) Critical Perspectives on Leadership Communication. In: Routledge Handbook of Organizational Leadership Communication :. Routledge. (In Press)
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Critical perspectives on leadership communication highlight the importance of power asymmetries and control strategies. They examine how leaders can exercise power and influence through communication and, equally, how communication processes may also reinforce leaders’ control and authority. This chapter draws on critical studies to consider how different leadership communication processes can have coercive and disciplinary outcomes. The chapter also considers the value of dialectical perspectives for leadership communication research, focussing on the mutually reinforcing relationship between power and resistance. Dialectical approaches recognize that leaders’ attempts to exercise control through communication may be paradoxical and contradictory, creating unintended consequences such as follower resistance and dysfunctional consequences for organizations, individuals and even leaders themselves. The chapter concludes by discussing the implications of critical dialectical approaches for future research on leadership communication.