Solange Hamrin

Conceptualizing communicative leadership: A framework for analysing and developing leaders' communication competence

Purpose – The concept of “communicative leadership” is used in organisations that analyse and develop leaders’ communication competence. A scholarly definition of this concept is lacking, and the implications of leaders’ communication and the development of communication competence for organisations are rarely discussed. The purpose of this paper is to create a theoretical framework around the concept of “communicative leadership”, which can contribute to future research and development of leaders’ communication competence.Design/methodology/approach – Three research questions were addressed: what communicative behaviours are central to leaders? How can “communicative leaders” be characterised? What is a “communicative leader”? Literature from the leadership and communication research fields was reviewed and related to these questions.Findings – Four central communicative behaviours of leaders (i.e. structuring, facilitating, relating, and representing), eight principles of communicative leadership, and a tentative definition are presented. A communicative leader is defined as someone who engages employees in dialogue, actively shares and seeks feedback, practices participative decision making, and is perceived as open and involved.Practical implications – A theoretical foundation to the practice of analysing and developing leaders’ communication competence is provided, which is related to employee engagement and organisational performance.Originality/value – Communicative leadership is a concept emerging from organisational needs, articulated by corporate and public organisation leaders. This article links its core constructs to academic quantitative and qualitative research in an integrated framework, which can guide further research and the development of leaders’ communication competence.

Recontextualizing Communicative Leadership: The Interplay of Discourses in a Swedish Multinational Organization

ABSTRACT This study employs a discursive lens to empirically analyze the sensemaking of leaders’ and employees’ communication in four different cultural contexts within a multinational organization. Communicative leaders were defined and recontextualized as strategists, interpreters/translators, instructors/facilitators, and sensemakers, considering their communication behaviors and attitudes toward employees. Data suggest that the recontextualization of microdiscourses of communication and leadership emphasizes the interplay of local and global contexts in discourses of leadership. The data also indicate that contexts (and consequently macro- and microdiscourses) are blended in leaders’ and employees’ accounts, shaping constructions of communicative leadership depending on different contextual conditions. The interplay is important to form a suitable leadership discourse that makes sense for the local members and helps them work together more effectively.

Communicative leadership: Fostering co-worker agency in two Swedish business organizations

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to enhance the knowledge of how leadership concepts are embraced by leadership actors and perceived to influence relationships between leaders and co-workers. ...

Communicative leadership and context: Exploring constructions of the context in discourses of leadership practices

Purpose – This purpose of this paper is to explore the discursive constructions of context and its significance in employees’ accounts of leadership practices, more specifically, discourses of comm ...