ILA 2025 Prague CLS Presentation of Leadership journal

Presentation of the journal Leadership for ILA 2025

1. Meet the Editors An Invitation to critical leadership studies and the Sage journal Leadership 27th ILA Global Conference, Prague 15-18 October 2025

2. Overview Introduction to the panel Overview of the journal What does it mean to take a critical perspective? Reflections on doing critical leadership research Opportunities and challenges for publishing critical leadership research Conclusions and invitation to the CLS community

3. Meet the panel Richard Bolden -  University of the West of England, UK – Associate Editor, Leadership Suze Wilson - Massey University, New Zealand – Associate Editor, Leadership Johan Alvehus - Lund University, Sweden – Associate Editor, Leadership Nicole Ferry - Copenhagen Business School, Denmark – Editorial Board Member, Leadership Brandon Kliewer - University of Tennessee, USA – ILA Stream Lead: Leadership Scholarship Joshua M. Hayden - Anglo-American University, Prague, Czech Republic

4. About the journal Leadership Launched in 2005 as a place to share critical, qualitative and interdisciplinary research on leadership Founding editors David Collinson and Keith Grint Former editors Dennis Tourish , Brad Jackson Associated with International Studying Leadership Conference (ISLC) 100 issues published so far! https://journals.sagepub.com/home/LEA linkedin.com/in/leadership-from-sage-journals-41981a202

5. Meet the Editorial Team Editors-in-Chief Doris Schedlitzki , Professor of Organisational Leadership, London Metropolitan University, UK Gareth Edwards , Professor of Community and Leadership Studies, University of the West of England (UWE), UK

6. Meet the Editorial Team Associate Editors Johan Alvehus Lund University, Sweden Richard Bolden University of the West of England, UK Hamid Foroughi University of Essex, UK Magnus Larsson Lund University, Sweden Sarah Robinson Rennes School of Business, France Owain Smolovic Jones Open University, UK Suze Wilson Massey University, New Zealand

7. Meet the Editorial Team Social Media Editor Marilyn Poon Paper Development Editor Donna Ladkin , Birmingham University, UK Plus 97 Editorial Board members

8. Journal description, aims & scope Leadership is an international, peer-reviewed journal designed to provide an ongoing forum for academic researchers to exchange information, insights and knowledge based on both theoretical development and empirical research on leadership . It publishes original, high-quality articles that contribute to the advancement of the study of leadership. The journal is global in orientation and focus. As our guidelines for authors makes clear, we are particularly interested in critical approaches to leadership . .... advances the understanding and significance of leadership in the economic, political, technological and social relations of organization and society …main emphasis in the journal is on interdisciplinary, diverse and critical analyses of leadership processes in contemporary organizations and society …encourages new ways of researching and conceptualizing leadership …welcome diverse methodologies and theoretical perspectives , and approaches drawn from the humanities as well as the social sciences

9. What is Critical leadership studies (CLS)? CLS is a ‘broad, diverse and heterogeneous [range of] perspectives that share a concern to critique the power relations and identity constructions through which leadership dynamics are often reproduced, frequently rationalized, sometimes resisted and occasionally transformed’ (Collinson, 2011: 181). Key features  (Sutherland et al., 2013: p.6):    ‘recognition that leadership is a socially constructed process shaped by interaction and negotiation’ ‘that leadership is concerned with meaning-making and reality definition’ that “the exercise and experience of power is central to all leadership dynamics” (Collinson, 2011: 185)’  ‘expand[ ing ] the study of leadership to encompass any individual who “expresses ideas  through talk or action that others recognise [...] as capable for progressing tasks or problems that [are] important to them” (Robinson,2001: 93).’

10. Guidance via editorials Tourish, D. (2015). Some announcements, reaffirming the critical ethos of Leadership, and what we look for in submissions. Leadership, (11) 2, 135-141. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715015577889 Tourish, D. (2022). Editorial transitions: Hail and farewell. Leadership, 18 (6), 725–728. https://doi.org/10.1177/17427150221131841 Edwards, G., & Schedlitzki, D. (2023). Editorial transitions part 2 – hail and hello. Leadership, 19 (1), 3–6. https://doi.org/10.1177/17427150221147371 Edwards, G., Schedlitzki, D., Carroll, B., Larsson, M., & Jones, O. S. (2024). What makes a good article for leadership? Thoughts and views from our associate editors, part 1. Leadership, 20 (1), 3-8. https://doi.org/10.1177/17427150241226756 Edwards, G., Schedlitzki, D., Robinson, S., Bolden, R., & Wilson, S. (2025). What makes a good article for leadership? Thoughts and views from our associate editors, part 2. Leadership, 21 (1), 3-10. https://doi.org/10.1177/17427150251316062

11. What makes a good article for Leadership? (1) "I look for edges in an article. As a noun, ‘an edge’ is akin to a brink or a verge - the point at which something different comes into view. [… a good] article […] takes us to somewhere novel, new, alternative, unclaimed but is still in dialogue with what is known, worked, and visible." (Brigid Carroll, 2024) "What I look for in manuscripts submitted to this journal, are attempts to engage empirically or theoretically with the complexity of the phenomenon of leadership […] I am primarily looking for manuscripts that place the social process of leadership at centre stage." (Magnus Larsson, 2024) "I offer the notion of critical companionship as a way of making sense of what constitutes a good article in this journal. Companions provide intellectual and emotional sustenance, helping us grow by introducing new ways of interpreting the world or giving us resources, we need to thrive." (Owain Smolović  Jones, 2024)

12. What makes a good article for Leadership? (2)  "I like papers that act as ‘ bridges ’, leading the reader across a chasm of knowledge - gorges, bays, cityscapes, choppy waters - to places otherwise inaccessible, providing the traveller access to and glimpses into other worlds, lives, contexts."  (Sarah Robinson, 2025) "Fundamentally, the journal contributes to the field of CLS by encouraging us to think differently about leadership theory, practice, research, policy and/or development – something largely achieved through questioning and challenging beliefs and practices." (Richard Bolden, 2025) "While [good] examples are informative, rigorous scholarship, my proposition is that part of their criticality and contribution also rests on their affective qualities, and the transformative potential those feelings can elicit. Life is short, so I want to read work that both informs and moves me in some way." (Suze Wilson, 2025)

13. Word cloud of abstracts Oct 2024–Sept 2025

14. Key themes Oct 2024–Sept 2025 (Top) management communication Climate change  Collective leadership processes Development project work Global justice January 6th, 2021 events LGBQ leadership Resistance leadership Social media platforms Social movements Sustainability The “troubles” in Northern Ireland Study focus Action research Biographical analysis Comparative cases Discourse analysis Document analysis Ethnographic observations of digital interactions Historical Interviews Long-term ethnography Meeting observations Textual interpretive analysis Video recordings of meetings Methods Anti-leadership Authenticity Collective action Daoism Diversity Group dynamics and social identity Hope Inclusivity leadership Intersectionality Leadership and authority Liminality Multimodal analysis Non-human actors & agency Responsibility-based leadership Rhetoric & metaphors Stoicism Theoretical themes

15. Metrics Ranked Q1 on SJR; B on ABDC; 2* on CABS

16. Conferences International Studying Leadership Conference (ISLC) (usually December) Developing Leadership Capacity Conference (DLCC) (usually July) ‘Best of’ ILA & ISLC