Schnurr, Stephanie and Chan, Angela. (2011) Exploring another side of co-leadership : negotiating professional identities through face-work in disagreements. Language in Society, Vol.40 (No.2). pp. 187-209. ISSN 1469-8013

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Abstract

Traditional perceptions that view leadership as a top down process are increasingly challenged by so-called critical perspectives that acknowledge that leadership may involve several people. This article explores a particular type of these other leadership constellations, namely co-leadership where members share several leadership responsibilities. Drawing on more than twenty hours of authentic discourse data recorded in two workplaces in Hong Kong, we employ the analytical concepts of face and identity to identify and describe some of the complex processes through which co-leadership is enacted. Our particular focus is situations in which members of the co-leadership team disagree with each other. Our findings indicate that co-leadership is a dynamic process in which both members position themselves and each other as leader and co-leader at different moments throughout an interaction. This dynamic nature can be captured particularly well by exploring how face-work and identity construction are accomplished in interlocutors’ everyday workplace talk.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for Applied Linguistics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Leadership, Leadership -- Hong Kong -- Case studies, Teams in the workplace
Journal or Publication Title:	Language in Society
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISSN:	1469-8013
Date:	April 2011
Volume:	Vol.40
Number:	No.2
Number of Pages:	23
Page Range:	pp. 187-209
Identification Number:	10.1017/S0047404511000030
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
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URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/36113

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