Signposts in Wonderland

In Lewis Carroll’s magical Wonderland, Alice approaches a fork in the road where she sees a cat sitting in a tree. Alice asks the cat, “Which road should I take?”

"Do you know where you want to go?” inquires the cat. “No,” says Alice. 

To which the cat replies, “Then any road will get you there.” 

To avoid being the proverbial Alice, I have finally assembled an outline for my thesis. A bona fide plan with chapter headings no less. At long last I feel that I am on top of this (well for now at least!). While the last 6 weeks have felt a bit like walking in circles (to clarify: I have been reading & thinking a LOT but the amount of pen to paper/fingers to keyboard time feels like it has been rather...lacking), the direction is finally set & the signpost clearly reads: 'thataway! at'em girl!'

Draft Title

Literary Approaches to Leadership Development: Using Women’s Literature to Explore Contemporary Leadership Issues

Chapter 1: Introduction

Approx. 1,000 – 1,500 words

• Background on this topic & field
• Justification for my research
• Guiding research question: “How can women’s literature and the feminine ‘voice’ be used in leadership development programmes to improve leadership practice?”
• Key themes: Gender & leadership development
• Outline/plan

Chapter 2: Leadership

Approx. 6,000 words

• Definition based on Donna Ladkin’s research of ‘The Leadership Moment.’

Leadership, as I conceive it in a business context, is the process of mobilising people effectively and efficiently so as they can work collectively towards a common purpose, goal or objective. But rather than being something that occurs through the agency of a single ‘leader’ figure; followers, context and the purpose to which effort is directed, all contribute to leadership’s occurrence (Ladkin 2010).

• Discussion on emerging approaches to leadership (i.e. post-heroic leadership, social constructionism, collaborative leadership, etc…)
• Discussion on leadership & the arts. Possible questions/issues to address:

-          What do the arts have to add to managerial practice?

-          How can the arts be of any interest to people who devote (or will devote) themselves to making organisations work efficiently?

-          What are the key differences in approaches

-          What do the humanities tell us about human nature?

-          The arts can “…foster curiosity about human issues and promote discussion of the values underlying human actions” (Arenas, 2006, p. 117).

-          Awakening an interest in civic issues and a sense of responsibility

-          Developing critical thinking

-          Promoting awareness of the ultimate values behind our decisions

What do the arts have to offer to leadership development? This paragraph from Management Education & the Humanities eloquently sums up what the arts have to offer:

“…extraordinary potential of analogic exploration, critical reflection and creative re-invention that these experiences offer in defining and addressing everyday management problems usually coped with by resorting or stereotyped routines. A humanistic culture will not provide administrators with the prescriptions or information that can be used immediately to solve specific problems, analytical or relational; nor will it enable them to take technically satisfactory decisions. But perhaps it will help them to evaluate events and persons with greater humility, to view phenomena from a broader perspective, to courageously confront the moral risks and responsibilities involved in doing their job, to rely constantly on a set of values rather than apply algorithms, and to give just as much importance to passion as to research, to wisdom as to competence” (Gagliardi & Czarniawska, 2006, p. 8). 

• Rewritten version of ‘Literature Review’ from Research Project in Semester 1 

Chapter 3: Doing Gender

Approx. 6,000 words

What is gender & how does it influence leadership? Exploring points of tension in current leadership discourse:

-          Expectations

-          Perceptions & stereotypes (i.e. the Selfless Heroine, the Iron Maiden, the Queen Bee)

-          Power & status

-          Women’s ‘styles’ of leadership (i.e. relational & collaborative approaches)

-          Women & authenticity

-          Tokenism

-          The working wife & mother

-          Female ambition

-          Women’s leadership in crisis situations

-     Gender neutrality in leadership texts/invisibility 

Feminist approaches to gender - Liberal vs. Cultural feminism:

Liberal Feminism: “From this perspective, a feminist is a person who believes that women are entitled to full legal and social equality with men and who favours changes in laws. Customs, and values to achieve the goal of equality. It emphasises the similarities between males and females, maintaining that give equal environments and opportunities, males and females will behave similarly” (Crawford, 2012, p. 9).

Cultural Feminism: “…emphasises differences between women and men. This perspective stresses that qualities characteristic of women have been devalued and should be honoured and respected in society. It views some gender differences in values and social behaviours as either an essential part of womanhood or so deeply socialised that they are virtually universal and unlikely to change” (Crawford, 2012, p. 10).

Tying it all together: A gender & humanities approach to leadership development

There is room to explore the gap in current research, since stories written by women which feature dynamic, fully-fleshed female voices are glaringly absent. [Refer back to literature review].

A few salient thoughts:

“By failing to counterbalance the shortcomings of agentic leadership with the feminine ‘other,’ these texts inadvertently overemphasise masculine understandings of leadership (Ahl, 2006).”

Instead of pitting ‘feminine’ against ‘masculine’ and romanticising differences, using women’s literature and adopting a feminine perspective simultaneously addresses the underrepresentation of women’s stories in this field, while also harnessing the ‘Other’s voice,’ a voice which has the potential to speak in more engaging ways about authentic & relational leadership. 

Chapter 4: Methods

Approx. 800 - 1,000 words

• Guiding question: How will I read the texts? (considering the tensions between ‘literary critic’ and ‘management facilitator’). Reconciling interdisciplinary approaches. 
• Thematic textual analysis based on an arts approach while simultaneously utilising the case study method so popular in business textbooks (modelled after Badaracco’s approach: Rather than providing ‘right’ answers, Badaracco encourages readers to ask thought-provoking questions and search “for explanations…by looking at themselves rather than blaming others”)
• Pedagogical interpretative framework – Interpretative-based studies emphasise socially constructed realities, intersubjectivity, practical reasoning, and ordinary talk.
• The value of reflective thinking as a method in leadership development. Reflective thinking is particularly important in leadership development, as through challenging our own assumptions, “we can develop more collaborative, responsible and ethical ways of managing organisations” (Cunliffe, 2004, p. 408).

Chapter 5: Findings: Chosen Texts

Approx. 7,000 – 10,000 words

• Criteria for selection of women’s literary works (discuss my method for selecting stories; how did I find them? What criteria did I set? etc)
• The process of choosing 3 – 5 texts from a pool of 12 appropriate stories (how do they work together? What are the unifying themes?)
• Analysis of 3 set texts (applying the same framework to each story, approx. 2,000 words each)

Chapter 6: Results (2): Workshop(?)

The project could be enhanced through the use of leadership development workshops and/or a ‘book club’ with women in positions of responsibility. Women’s stories and leadership issues will be discussed and recorded in a group setting. This additional method of data collection aims to demonstrate how discussing literature can contribute to the development of leadership awareness and enhance practice.

Chap 7: Discussion

So what?

Providing a justification for & method by which women’s literature can be used to awaken curiosity and stimulate debate on gender-related leadership issues in organisations.

Final Thoughts...

I'll do another summary of my latest readings in a week or two, but for now I want to end with this quote attributed to Sarah Grimke from The Invention of Wings (2014) by Sue Monk Kidd:

The Beginning of the Beginning or 'Listomaniac'

How to start? I don’t want to make this pre-meditated like most of my writing, which is either carefully sculpted or hurriedly assembled (uni vs. work), but rather to serve as a train(wreck) of unmitigated consciousness, unstopped and unhindered by the need to say something or anything in particular. Rather I foresee it contributing to my thesis (yes, I now have a ‘my thesis’ can you believe!) by being a space to process the great amount of information I will be attempting to cram into my brain over the course of the next 12 months. An opportunity to reflect on the poignant nuances, downright absurdities or dazzling revelations found in what I read, without worrying how it all ‘fits’ into the bigger picture. Simple existence amidst the rush, pull, push, and general distractions of everyday life. Will I share this with anyone? Perhaps, perhaps not. This is for me, after all.

But back to the beginning. The start. The inevitable. The task is daunting – how do you research, write, and give of yourself to create/mould/shape an idea which has ‘meaning’ in just one short year? Perhaps the universities have it all wrong – pumping out Masters Students and collecting money for the ‘good of mankind’ without really giving us a chance to learn, except how to meet deadlines that is. But it really is what you make it. And SO I have begun.

“But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart.” – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

So begins the fourth book (The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin) of twenty which I am setting out to read within the next 40 or so days. To be honest, I don’t think I will continue with this one. I am learning to recognise the very subtle difference between what is merely a simple reflection of daily life/culture (or the way I want daily life to be like) – the socially acceptable and constructed way of being – and the genuinely life-changing, moving, provoking, unexpected. Some stories have this innate quality of engaging ‘the philosopher’ within (or ‘the concerned citizen’) which I suppose (or hope!) resides in all of us, while others merely reflect what is acceptable and palpable. Easy to read, easy to forget. That doesn’t mean popular fiction should be ignored or shunned, but rather that it is simply less than ‘great’ literature; less engaging, less thought-provoking, less life-changing. I think I now understand why Badaracco and Marturano & Perruci were so insistent on ‘great works of art’ for their research. The ‘great’ being the ungraspable essence which makes a story exist as an entity seemingly, and perhaps deceptively, separate from its creator and reader, so much so that I almost forget books like The Poisonwood Bible, The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Narrow Road to the Deep North (to name a few of my more recent literary endeavours) even had an author, a thinking, breathing human being who stringed words into meaning.

And so while Katniss Eberdeen or the Divergent heroine (who even remembers what her name is??) continue to perpetuate the ‘great man’ myth of leadership by replacing the titular white male hero with an even whiter female leader who is ‘just as good as a man,’ albeit moodier, I am preparing to slog my way through 20 odd books/plays/short story collections in order to find the ‘great.’ Oh and to make that harder for myself, they have to be by female authors, with female characters, practicing leadership. Sound like an easy requirement? Let me tell you – it’s not. If it’s one thing women don’t like to write about, its leadership (unless it’s about a badass, brooding heroine…who's white…and needs men to help her out). Heartache, love, family, children, relationships, violence, grief, passion, fear, endurance, etc…that we can do, yes sir. But ‘leadership’ or ‘leading’ beyond the conventional masculinities of the term? Not so easily.

Here is my list so far, with a few hopeful empty slots:

Title:	Author:	Year:	Type:
A Room of One’s Own	Virginia Woolf	1926	Extended essay
The Poisonwood Bible	Barbara Kingslover	1998	Novel
The Women’s Room	Marilyn French	1977	Novel
Top Girls	Caryl Churchill	1982	Play
The Secret Life of Bees	Sue Monk Kidd	2002	Novel
The Group	Mary McCarthy	1963	Novel
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie	Muriel Spark	1969	Novel
The Aviator’s Wife	Melanie Benjamin	2013	Historical Fiction
Cousins	Patricia Grace	1998	NZ Fiction
Their Eyes Were Watching God	Zora Neale Hurston	1937	Novel
The Golden Notebook	Doris Lessing	1962	Novel
Excellent Women	Barbara Pym	1952	Novel
The Left Hand of Darkness	Ursula K. Le Guin	1969	Sci-fi Novel
How to Be Both	Ali Smith	2014	Novel
Outline	Rachel Cusk	2010	Novel

I like these women. They’re not afraid of the unconventional. And I feel that their writing is for something better, more important than the paycheck or the Man Booker Prize. In the same way, I feel that ‘authentic’ leadership is for something more than just effectively managing people or making a company more profitable. Because really, it’s not exactly authentic to hijack authenticity to do or encourage something inauthentic. It’s a way of being more than anything else, starting with self, but flowing onto others. An individually collective endeavour, a balancing of the innate propensity for selfishness with the desire to be better, kinder, engaged and loving to others as you lead, and without ignoring injustice, inequality or ethical dilemmas for the ‘good’ of business.

I expect my viewpoints to change over the next 6 weeks as I read and absorb these stories. And so this journal is for the simple purpose of capturing change in motion. My change, and my motion. The who I am now, the who I will be, and the who I could be.