Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T08:17:43.190Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ethical Irony and the Relational Leader: Grappling with the Infinity of Ethics and the Finitude of Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2017

Carl Rhodes  and
Richard Badham
Carl Rhodes
Affiliation:
University of Technology Sydney
Richard Badham
Affiliation:
Macquarie Graduate School of Management
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Relational leadership invokes an ethics involving a leader’s affective engagement and genuine concern with the interests of others. This ethics faces practical difficulties given it implies a seemingly limitless responsibility to a set of incommensurable ethical demands. This article contributes to addressing the impasse this creates in three ways. First, it clarifies the nature of the tensions involved by theorising relational leadership as caught in an irreconcilable bind between an infinitely demanding ethics and the finite possibilities of a response to those demands. Second, it examines this ethical challenge in acknowledgement of the hierarchical discourses and power dynamics in which leadership relationships are constrained and enacted. Third, it proposes “ethical irony” as a way leaders can respond to the demand for ethics without resulting in either an escape from ethics, or being crushed by its burden. Three dimensions of ethical irony are examined: ironic perspective, ironic performance, and ironic predilection.

Keywords

ironyEmmanuel Levinasleadership ethicsrelational ethicsrelational leadership
Type
Special Section
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , January 2018 , pp. 71 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aasland, D. G. 2007. The exteriority of ethics in management and its transition into justice: A Levinasian approach to ethics in business. Business Ethics: A European Review , 16: 220–226.Google Scholar
Aasland, D. G. 2009. Ethics and economy: After Levinas . London: MayFlyBooks.Google Scholar
Alexander, J. 2013. The dark side of modernity . Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Alvesson, M., & Spicer, A. 2010. Metaphors we lead by . London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Avolio, B. J., Walumbwa, F. O., & Weber, T. J. 2009. Leadership: Current theories, research, and future directions. Annual Review of Psychology , 60: 421–449.Google Scholar
Badham, R., & McLoughlin, I. 2005. Ambivalence and engagement: Irony and cultural change in late modern organizations. International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management , 5(4): 132–143.Google Scholar
Badham, R., Claydon, R., & Down, S. 2012. The ambivalence paradox in cultural change. In Hassard, J., Burnes, B., & Boje, D. (Eds.), Routledge Companion on Organizational Change : 407–424. Routledge: London.Google Scholar
Barnes, J. 1990. Flaubert’s parrot . New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Bauman, Z. 1987. Interpreters and legislators . Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Bauman, Z. 1991. Modernity and ambivalence . Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Berger, P. 1997. Redeeming laughter: The comic dimension of human experience . Berlin: De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berger, P., & Luckmann, T. 1995. Pluralism and the crisis of meaning: The orientation of modern man . Gutersloh: Bertelsmann.Google Scholar
Berlin, I. 1969. Liberty . Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bevan, D., & Corvellec, H. 2007. The impossibility of corporate ethics: For a Levinasian approach to managerial ethics. Business Ethics: A European Review , 16: 208–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bisecker, B. 1997. Addressing postmodernity: Kenneth Burke, rhetoric and a theory of social change . Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Boltanski, L., Thevenot, L., & Porter, C. 2006. On justification: Economies of worth . Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Booth, W. 1974. A rhetoric of irony . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Brower, H. H., Schoorman, F. D., & Tan, H. H. 2000. A model of relational leadership: The integration of trust and leader–member exchange. The Leadership Quarterly , 11: 227–250.Google Scholar
Brown, R. H. 1977. A poetic for sociology: Toward a logic of discovery for the human sciences . New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Burke, K. 1962. A grammar of motives, and a rhetoric of motives . Cleveland: World Pub. Co.Google Scholar
Burke, K. 1984. Attitudes toward history . Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Byers, D., & Rhodes, C. 2007. Ethics, alterity, and organizational justice. Business Ethics: A European Review , 16(3): 239–250.Google Scholar
Cardona, P. 2000. Transcendental leadership. Leadership and Organization Development Journal , 21(4): 201–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carifio, J. 2010. Development and validation of a measure of relational leadership: Implications for leadership theory and policies. Current Research in Psychology , 1(1): 16–28.Google Scholar
Carlson, A. C. 1986. Gandhi and the comic frame: “Ad bellum purificandum.” Quarterly Journal of Speech , 72(4): 446–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carmeli, A., Tishler, A., & Edmondson, A. C. 2012. CEO relational leadership and strategic decision quality in top management teams: The role of team trust and learning from failure. Strategic Organization , 10(1): 31–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N. 1999. Profit over people: Neoliberalism and global order . London: Seven Stories.Google Scholar
Clegg, S., Kornberger, M., & Rhodes, C. 2007. Business ethics as practice. British Journal of Management , 18(2): 107–122.Google Scholar
Clegg, S. R., Kornberger, M., Carter, C., & Rhodes, C. 2006. For management? Management Learning , 37(7): 7–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, S., & Taylor, L. 1992. Escape attempts: The theory and practice of resistance to everyday life . London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Crevani, L., Lindgren, M., & Packendorff, J. 2010. Leadership, not leaders: On the study of leadership as practices and interactions. Scandinavian Journal of Management , 26(1): 77–86.Google Scholar
Critchley, S. 2007. Infinitely demanding: Ethics of commitment, politics of resistance . London: Verso.Google Scholar
Cunliffe, A. L. 2009. The philosopher leader: On relationalism, ethics and reflexivity—A critical perspective to teaching leadership. Management Learning , 40(1): 87–101.Google Scholar
Cunliffe, A. L., & Eriksen, M. 2011. Relational leadership. Human Relations , 64(11): 1425–1449.Google Scholar
Dachler, H. P., & Hosking, D. M. 1995. The primacy of relations in socially constructing organizational realities. In Hosking, D. M., Dachler, H. P., & Gergen, K. J. (Eds.), Management and organisation: Relational perspectives : 1–28. Aldershot: Avebury.Google Scholar
de Gama, N., McKenna, S., & Peticca-Harris, A. 2012. Ethics and HRM: Theoretical and conceptual analysis. Journal of Business Ethics , 111(1): 97–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Man, P. 1996. Aesthetic ideology . Minneapolis: University of Minesota Press.Google Scholar
Derrida, J. 2000. Of hospitality . Redwood City: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Dikec, M. 2002. Pera peras poros: Longings for spaces of hospitality. Theory, Culture and Society , 19(1-2): 227–247.Google Scholar
Douglas, M. 1968. The social control of cognition: Some factors in joke perception. Man , 3(3): 361–376.Google Scholar
Drath, W. H., McCauley, C. D., Palus, C. J., Van Velsor, E., O’Connor, P. M., & McGuire, J. B. 2008. Direction, alignment, commitment: Toward a more integrative ontology of leadership. Leadership Quarterly , 19(6): 635–653.Google Scholar
Edwards, G. 2014. Community as leadership . Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Fairhurst, G. T., & Uhl-Bien, M. 2012. Organizational discourse analysis (ODA): Examining leadership as a relational process. Leadership Quarterly , 23(6): 1043–1062.Google Scholar
Ferch, S. R., & Mitchell, M. M. 2001. Intentional forgiveness in relational leadership: A technique for enhancing effective leadership. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies , 7(4): 70–83.Google Scholar
Ferguson, K. 1993. The man question: Visions of subjectivity in feminist theory . Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Fernandez, J., & Huber, M. (Eds.). 2001. Irony in action . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Fleming, P., & Sewell, G. 2002. Looking for the good soldier, Svejk: Alternative modalities of resistance in the contemporary workplace. Sociology , 36(4): 857–873.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fletcher, J. K. 2004. The paradox of postheroic leadership: An essay on gender, power, and transformational change. Leadership Quarterly , 15(5): 647–661.Google Scholar
Frazier, B. 2006. Rorty and Kierkegaard on irony and moral commitment: Philosophical and theological connections . New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Frosh, S. 2011. The relational ethics of conflict and identity. Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society , 16: 225–243.Google Scholar
Fulop, L., & Mark, A. 2013. Relational leadership, decision-making and the messiness of context in healthcare. Leadership , 9: 254–277.Google Scholar
Gouldner, A. W. 1967. Enter Plato: Classical Greece and the origins of social theory . London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Grandy, G., & Sliwa, M. 2017. Contemplative leadership: The possibilities for the ethics of leadership theory and practice. Journal of Business Ethics , 143: 423–440.Google Scholar
Grint, K. 2005. Problems, problems, problems: The social construction of ‘leadership’. Human Relations , 58: 1467–1494.Google Scholar
Grint, K. 2010. The sacred in leadership: Separation, sacrifice and silence. Organization Studies , 31: 89–107.Google Scholar
Guhin, J. 2013. Is irony good for America: The threat of nihilism, the importance of romance and the power of cultural forms. Cultural Sociology , 7: 1–16 Google Scholar
Hatch, M. J. 1997. Irony and the social construction of contradiction in the humor of a management team. Organization Science , 8: 275–288.Google Scholar
Hegel, F. 1886/1993. Introductory lectures on aesthetics . London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Höpfl, H. M. 2006. Post-bureaucracy and Weber’s ‘modern’ bureaucrat. Journal of Organizational Change Management , 19: 8–21.Google Scholar
Hosking, D. M. 2011. Telling tales of relations: Appreciating relational constructionism. Organization Studies , 32: 47–65.Google Scholar
Hoyle, E., & Wallace, M. 2008. Two faces of organizational irony: Endemic and pragmatic, Organization Studies , 29: 1427–1447.Google Scholar
Hutcheon, L. 1994. Irony’s edge: The theory and politics of irony . London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Johansson, U., & Woodilla, J. 2005. Irony and organizations: Epistemological claims and supporting field stories . Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press.Google Scholar
Jones, C. 2003. As if business ethics were possible, ‘within such limits’... Organization , 10: 223–248.Google Scholar
Jones, J. 2014. Leadership lessons from Levinas: Revisiting responsible leadership. Leadership and the Humanities , 1: 44–63.Google Scholar
Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. 2009. Immunity to change . Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.Google Scholar
Kierkegaard, S. 1938. Journals of Soren Kierkegaard . Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kierkegaard, S. 1989. The concept of irony/Schelling lecture notes : Kierkegaard’s writings , Vol. 2. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kish-Gephart, J. J., Harrison, D. A., & Treviño, L. K. 2010. Bad apples, bad cases, and bad barrels: Meta-analytic evidence about sources of unethical decisions at work. Journal of Applied Psychology , 95: 1–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klein, J. 2007. True change . San Francisco: Jossey Bass.Google Scholar
Knights, D., & O’Leary, M. 2005. Reflecting on corporate scandals: The failure of ethical leadership. Business Ethics: A European Review , 14: 359–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knights, D., & OߣLeary, M. 2006. Leadership, ethics and responsibility to the other. Journal of Business Ethics , 67(2): 125–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Komives, S. R., Longerbeam, S. D., Owen, J. E., Mainella, F. C., & Osteen, L. 2006. A leadership identity development model: Applications from a grounded theory. Journal of College Student Development , 47: 401–418.Google Scholar
Kunda, G. 2006. Engineering culture: Control and commitment in a high-tech corporation . Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Kundera, M. 1984. The unbearbale lightness of being . New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Lanham, R. 1995. The electronic word . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Levinas, E. 1969. Totality and infinity: An essay on exteriority . Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.Google Scholar
Levinas, E. 1974. Otherwise than being: Or beyond essence . Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.Google Scholar
Levinas, E. 1985. Ethics and infinity . Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.Google Scholar
Linstead, S. 1985. Jokers wild: The importance of humour in the maintenance of organizational culture. The Sociological Review , 33: 741–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, H. 2015. Reimagining ethical leadership as a relational, contextual and political practice. Leadership . doi: 10.1177/1742715015593414.Google Scholar
Maak, T., & Pless, N. M. 2006. Responsible leadership in a stakeholder society: A relational perspective. Journal of Business Ethics , 66: 99–115.Google Scholar
March, J., & Weil, T. 2005. On leadership . New York: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
McLoskey, D., 1994. Knowledge and persuasion in economics . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Meyerson, D. J. 2003. Tempered radicals: How everyday leaders inspire change at work . Boston: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Meyerson, D., & Scully, M. 1995. Tempered radicalism and the politics of ambivalence and change. Organization Science , 6: 585–600.Google Scholar
Muecke, D. C. 1976. Irony . London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Muhr, S. L. 2008. Othering diversity, A Levinasian analysis of diversity management. International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy , 3: 176–189.Google Scholar
Nagel, T. 2012. Mortal questions . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Oswick, C., Keenoy, T., & Grant, D. 2002. Metaphor and analogical reasoning in organization theory: Beyond orthodoxy. Academy of Management Review , 27(2): 294–303.Google Scholar
Painter-Morland, M. 2008. Systemic leadership and the emergence of ethical responsiveness. Journal of Business Ethics , 82(2): 509–524.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, M. 2009. Angelic organization: Hierarchy and the tyranny of heaven. Organization Studies , 30(11): 1281–1299.Google Scholar
Pless, N. M., & Maak, T. 2011. Responsible leadership: Pathways to the Future. Journal of Business Ethics , 98: 3–13.Google Scholar
Pound, M. 2008. Zizek: A (very) critical introduction . Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerrdmans.Google Scholar
Popke, E. J. 2003. Poststructuralist ethics: subjectivity, responsibility and the space of community. Progress in Human Geography , 27(3): 298–316.Google Scholar
Raelin, J. 2011. From leadership-as-practice to leaderful practice. Leadership , 7: 195–211.Google Scholar
Raelin, J. A. 2016. Imagine there are no leaders: Reframing leadership as collaborative agency. Leadership , 12: 131–158.Google Scholar
Reitz, M. 2015. Dialogue in organizations: Developing relational leadership . Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Rhodes, C. 2012. Ethics, alterity and the rationality of leadership justice. Human Relations , 65(10): 1311–1331.Google Scholar
Rhodes, C. 2016. Democratic business ethics: Volkswagen’s emissions scandal and the disruption of corporate sovereignty. Organization Studies , 37(10): 1501–1518.Google Scholar
Rhodes, C., & Westwood, R. I. 2016. The limits of generosity: Lessons on ethics, economy, and reciprocity in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. Journal of Business Ethics , 133(2): 235–248.Google Scholar
Roberts, J. 2003. The manufacture of corporate social responsibility: Constructing corporate sensibility. Organization , 10(2): 249–265.Google Scholar
Rooke, D., & Torbert, W. 1998. Organizational transformation as a function of CEOs’ developmental stage. Organization Development Journal , 16(1): 11–28.Google Scholar
Rorty, R. 1989. Contingency, irony, and solidarity . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rueckart, W. H. 1993. Kenneth Burke and the drama of human relations . San Francisco: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Schwartz, B., & Sharpe, K. 2010. Practical wisdom . New York: Riverhead Books.Google Scholar
Sewell, G., & Barker, J. 2006. Coercion versus care: Using irony to make sense of organizational surveillance. Academy of Management Review , 31(4): 934–961.Google Scholar
Søltoft, P. 2001. Ethics and irony. In Perkins, L. P. (Ed.), The concept of irony : 265–287. Macon: Mercer University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, C. 2004. Modern social imaginaries . New York: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Trethewey, A. 1999. Isn’t it ironic: Using irony to explore the contradictions of organizational life. Western Journal of Communication , 63(2): 140–167.Google Scholar
Turner, B. 2002. Cosmopolitan virtue: On religion in a global age. European Journal of Social Theory , 4(2): 131–152.Google Scholar
Uhl-Bien, M. 2006. Relational leadership theory: Exploring the social processes of leadership and organizing. The Leadership Quarterly , 17(6): 654–676.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vlastos, G. 1991. Socrates: Ironist and moral philosopher . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Weick, K. 1979. The social psychology of organizing . McGraw Hill: New York.Google Scholar
Wess, R. 1996. Kenneth Burke: Rhetoric, subjectivity, postmodernism . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Westwood, R. I. 2004. Comic relief: Subversion and catharsis in organizational comedic theatre. Organization Studies , 25(5): 775–95.Google Scholar
Westwood, R. I., & Rhodes, C. (Eds.). 2007. Humour, work and organization . Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Yukl, G. 1999. An evaluative essay on current conceptions of effective leadership. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology , 8(1): 33–48.Google Scholar