Cornelia Ilie

Leaders in Times of Change: Stereotypes and Counter-Stereotypes of Leadership Discourse

In many communities of practice, there is growing awareness about the interdependence between organisational outcomes and the impact of leadership discourses (Putnam and Fairhurst 2001; Clifton 2012). Echoes of the trait perspective on leadership can still be felt when the success or failure of a company is stereotypically being assessed in terms of its leader’s rhetorical performance and personal charisma (Bass 1985). While questioning this perspective, the approach in this chapter envisages leadership as an interactive and relational process that occurs in the culture-specific context of an organisation and is marked by the capacity of leaders to deal with global challenges and opportunity-creating changes (Beerel 2009). The focus of the present study is on the discursively articulated performance of leadership during competition-driven organisational change. Drawing on CEO letters to employees of two multi-national companies, Nokia (Finland) and Ericsson (Sweden), a comparative analysis of the challenges of leadership discourse practices is carried out in a discourse-analytical and pragma-rhetorical perspective. Both companies are known to have a strong link to national identity, but over time they have often displayed different leadership strategies in the national and international context. Nokia is part of the modernisation process of Finnish society and related to a strong national narrative of catching up, while Ericsson represents the continuation of a proud industrial tradition where Swedes for decades have been a most advanced nation (Linden 2012). This comparative study exposes stereotypes and counter-stereotypes that underlie the discursive construction and reconstruction of leadership aimed at ensuring consistent interconnectedness between a company’s values and its competitive performance qualities.

Scrutinising Recurrent Stereotypes in Leadership Discourse Practices

While a wide range of studies have analysed and discussed mainly different types and characteristics of leadership, the aim of this book is to explore the contributions made by multidimensional and integrative theories that focus on leadership discourses as leadership-impacting and leadership-impacted practices. A particular focus is on empirical investigations that emphasise the role of language in doing leadership, by showing how leadership emerges from the dynamics of everyday contextually embedded discursive interactions and communication processes that involve multiple and interdependent organisational agents. Against this backdrop are briefly presented the cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approaches used in individual chapters that provide deeper insights into the competing, multi-voiced, controversial and complex identities and relationships enacted in the performance of leadership discourse practices. The end goal is to provide an enhanced understanding of how leadership is discursively constructed, deconstructed and reconstructed in a variety of formal and informal leadership activities in the fields of business, politics, law, media, education, and sports .

Web 2.0

ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЕ ИНСТРУМЕНТОВ WEB 2.0 В ПРОЦЕССЕ ОБУЧЕНИЯ ПЕРЕВОДУ Использование инструментов Web 2.0 в процессе обучения переводу становится привычным и обыденным благодаря современным мобильным средствам связи и свободному доступу к интернету. Информационные технологии позволяют более эффективно и интенсивно проводить обучение переводу, способствуют формированию языковой и коммуникативной компетенций, открывают широкие возможности для раскрытия творческого потенциала и языковых способностей учащихся. Адрес статьи: www.gramota.net/materials/2/2013/9-2/44.html