A multimodal discourse analysis of positioning and identity work in a leadership development practice.: A combined dialogicality and small story analysis

The paper shows an example of how interaction in a leadership development forum can be analyzed from a narrative-in-use perspective through a combined dialogicality and small story analysis strategy. This entails that a multimodal discourse analysis is conducted of the positioning and identity work accomplished in a research- and dialogue-based leadership development forum in a university setting. A micro-generic positioning analysis of the participants’ small story efforts is combined with an analysis of dialogicality involving other-orientation to show how storytelling takes place and how opposing discourses within organization and leadership studies co-emerge in multimodal interaction. Among other things the analysis shows how different sociomaterial interactional setups shape identity work in situ. The research contributes to the emerging study of organizational dialogical and narrative practices up close. It emphasizes both the broad (Discursive) and the local (discursive) dimensions together with sociomaterial aspects of discourse and storytelling, which are increasingly pursued and recommended within the fields of narrative, dialogue, and discourse studies

Dialogue on dialogues: Multi-voiced dialogues (dialogism) as means for the co-production of knowledge in and on leadership communicative practices

The article elaborates on a theoretical understanding of dialogue as a means for the co-production of knowledge in and on leadership communicative practices through ongoing research collaboration that involves leaders, researchers and master students at Aalborg University. Dialogue is viewed from a dissensus perspective, which draws on Bakhtin’s dynamic thoughts on the heteroglossic nature of interaction and on multi-voiced dialogues as battles between centrifugal and centripetal forces. The concept multi-voiced dialogues is posited as a means for opening up dialogical moments of change in order to cultivate the creative and transformational powers of dialogues in which new meanings, voices and forms of knowledge emerge. I discuss how this way of framing the dialogical co-production of knowledge challenges the mainstream understanding of dialogical practices by embracing relational, conflictual and contradictory aspects of meaning-making processes. The concept of multi-voiced dialogues aims to challenge authoritative discourses that advocate monologism, unity and consensus

Co-Production and Co-Creation: Critical Examination of Contemporary Dominant Participatory Discourses

Over the past decade, co-production and co-creation have become central buzzwords throughout society. The terms engender a fundamental participatory ethos, entailing an increasing involvement in decision-making processes of a variety of people across diverse contexts, who should be given a voice in a wide range of practices to a higher degree than previously done. To a large extent, this participatory wave thus creates new challenges and dilemmas for employees in contemporary organizations. For instance, many public employees (frontline workers) experience challenges regarding translating (and/or enacting) co-creative/co-productive policy objectives into (in) their practices. A central obstacle seems to be the fact that existing organizational frameworks and conditions are often rooted in contradictory management paradigms and reified institutionalized practices, complicating participatory aspirations and processes in various ways. In different ways, the contributions in this issue critically address and discuss a variety of challenges related to co-production and co-creation in contemporary society