chris mabey | Middlesex University (original) (raw)

Papers by chris mabey

The reason for the title of this book: Leadership Matters? is not simply to delineate the terrain... more The reason for the title of this book: Leadership Matters? is not simply to delineate the terrain we cover, it also pertains to two further levels. First and most obviously, leadership matters as a significant element of our daily lives: without effective and ethical leadership we suffer personally, socially, economically, ecologically. It matters for us also in so far as we are all affected by leadership not just in the simple way depicted in followership studies but in the more substantive manner in which leadership is about energizing practices of transformation that can only be enacted through collective embodied engagement. Second, much of the thrust of this book concerns the return to materiality in social science, the realization that we do not just bring our brains to work; that knowledge is not simply a commodity to be traded; that our relationships with co-workers are not simply transactions. What moves our heads is our bodies and the material contexts of their intra-action, and what moves our bodies is our souls and our relationships to the world around us. So, literally, matter does matter. Another interesting feature on this notion of what matters is Latour’s distinction between matters of ‘fact’ and matters of ‘concern’ for he felt that the latter moral dimension was frequently being chased out by the so-called factual as a result of epistemologies and methods grounded in the logical and positive sciences. In matters of leadership, the shift between ‘facts’ and ‘concerns’ is historical and forever in transition. Yet the question mark in our title suggests that we are not unreflective about each of these meanings and do not wish to impose them on readers but merely to offer then as points for debate, dispute, and even dismissal. VOICE. The sub-title is also important and the three sections of the book broadly follow the substantial though rarely articulated concerns of many of us enmeshed in contemporary organizations. Although recognizing that most of us have and continue to work out of economic necessity ow can I pause long enough to (re)-discover why I am working in the first place, how do I resist the ready-made ‘solutions’ and leadership techniques pushed at me every week? In short, how do I find my moral bearings, my unique voice? With a particular focus upon mindfulness, this is the subject of the first section. The second deals with CONNECTION. For too long the workplace has neglected the viscerality of our emotions, airbrushed-out diversity and difference, relegated family and non-work attachments, idolised the heroic at the expense of the here-and-now. Despite the everyday palpability of our bodies and all the signals they convey, we continue to pursue leadership in a largely dis-embodied manner, neglecting how ‘the mind is simply the idea of the body’ . In doing so, the body often returns to haunt us and no more so than in our masculine driven world of winning regardless of the consequences to one’s own and others bodies. In the blurring of boundaries between work and non-work, it is attention to the latter (and all the care and commitments this carries) that gets sacrificed. Also despite the constant babble about ‘leadership’ in the media, in sport, in corporations, in politics, the Englishness of this narrative (with all the imposition and limitation that this implies) goes unquestioned. Furthermore, in the pre-occupation with fantasized ideals of heroic leadership, this mythology massively underestimates the mundane, the everyday expression of leadership in ordinary acts. The third section deals with MEANING. In the raging waters of workplace expectations, business targets and career goals, it is easy to lose one’s moorings. In moments of honesty and places of trust, we all – as leaders - ask of ourselves: how do I deal with the persistence of ego, reduce the credibility gap between what I say and what I do, determine what is really important, retain integrity, have fun and stay resolute to my life goals? And in relation to leading with others, we ask: how can we find a moral compass so that we lead responsibly together; how can we confront dubious practices which cause us unease; how can we empower ourselves to do what is important, not just what is urgent and how do we play our part in changing the world and leaving a meaningful legacy? Whether we use the language of philosophy, soul or spirituality, the common territory here is not just the desire to invest our workspace with meaning but also to recognize its presence without such investments. And finding this voice, connection and meaning will surely bring an ethical edge to the way we think, speak and behave as followers and leaders.

Routledge eBooks, Nov 16, 2017

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2013

Regional Studies, Nov 17, 2016

This document is the author's post-print version, incorporating any revisions agreed during the p... more This document is the author's post-print version, incorporating any revisions agreed during the peer-review process. Some differences between the published version and this version may remain and you are advised to consult the published version if you wish to cite from it.

Human Relations, Sep 1, 2005

This paper illustrates a number of ways in which competency or capability-based management develo... more This paper illustrates a number of ways in which competency or capability-based management development (CBMD) can work simultaneously both for and against the interests of organizational agents. It does so by demonstrating how CBMD might usefully be understood as both ideological and quasi-religiously faith-based. These features are shown to provide opportunities for resistance and micro-emancipation alongside those for repression and subordination. The study employs a combination of 'middle range' discourse analytical techniques. In the first instance, critical discourse analysis is applied to company documentation to distil the ideological stance of an international organization's CBMD programme. Critical discursive psychology is then used to assess the ways in which employees' evaluative accounts both support and resist such stance. The analysis builds upon previous insights from Foucauldian studies of CBMD by foregrounding processes of discursive agency. It also renders more visible and discussible the assumptions and dilemmas that CBMD might imply.

Routledge studies in human resource development, Apr 13, 2007

A string of high-profile research reports have criticized UK employers for providing inadequate d... more A string of high-profile research reports have criticized UK employers for providing inadequate development and training for managers. This article unveils the results of a study which confounds a number of expectations.

Developing Managers: A European Perspective reveals that the UK is falling behind in developing i... more Developing Managers: A European Perspective reveals that the UK is falling behind in developing its managers. This two year study shows that UK organisations spend less than their European counterparts on training and development, and are the least likely to offer sufficient career planning to employees. The study builds on the methodolgy developed by the Chartered Management Institute's "Developing Management Excellence" series, which has been tracking trends in management development in the UK since the 1980s. It involved 1400 telephone interviews with both HR managers and line managers.

SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks, Mar 9, 2016

Regions Magazine, Mar 1, 2010

Business Ethics Quarterly, Jul 1, 2018

This article introduces the second of two special issues on philosophical approaches to leadershi... more This article introduces the second of two special issues on philosophical approaches to leadership ethics. In this issue, the articles draw on the works of Plato, Niccolò Machiavelli, Michel Foucault, and Jürgen Habermas to explore questions in leadership ethics concerning leaders' self-knowledge and self-constitution and their responsibilities to their followers. The articles in this issue demonstrate the potential of philosophy to deepen our understanding of leadership and ethics.

R & D Management, Oct 30, 2014

While many studies of knowledge exchange have been undertaken in private and service organization... more While many studies of knowledge exchange have been undertaken in private and service organizations, government and R&D enterprises, few have studied scientific interorganizational collaborations. Furthermore, in the literature on international networks there has been a tendency to assume that knowledge exchange will be inevitably enhanced by global dispersion. Two linked dynamics deserving further study are the role of geographic proximity and the role of information and communication technologies in facilitating knowledge flow across international networks. Studies of intra-and inter-firm knowledge transfer, managerial work values and cultural norms all point to China as being a fascinating counterpoint for the way knowledge exchange might occur in Europe. So in this study of the ATLAS collaboration, a 'big science' global network of 3,500 physicists, we explore the perceptions of two subgroups: UK physicists working in Europe and Chinese scientists based in Beijing and HeFei. Findings from 24 interviews and non-participant observation reveal that face-to-face working at European Organization for Nuclear Research (Geneva) is not without its difficulties, but for a variety of sociocultural reasons, it is primarily the Chinese scientists who perceive themselves to be inhibited from full participation in effective knowledge exchange.

This article introduces the rst of two special issues on philo- sophical approaches to leadership... more This article introduces the rst of two special issues on philo- sophical approaches to leadership ethics. In it, we show some of the ways that philosophy contributes to the study of leadership and leadership ethics. We begin with an overview of how philosophers have treated some of the ethical aspects and challenges of leadership. These include discussions of self-interest, the prob- lem of dirty hands, responsibility, moral luck, power, gender and diversity, and spirituality. The articles in this issue draw on philosophy to explore a variety of ethical questions related to leadership and the relationships that leaders have with followers and others.

International Studies of Management & Organization, 1998

The survey of management development used as the basis of this analysis was designed to build on ... more The survey of management development used as the basis of this analysis was designed to build on the outcomes of three reports published just over a decade ago.1 The Constable-McCormick report, The Making of British Managers, and the Handy report, The Making of Managers , were both published in April 1987, following shortly after the Mangham and Silver report (1986). Together, the three reports provided by far the most comprehensive framework of research and recommendations up to that point into the development, training, and education of managers. The reports were complementary in content and conclusions, with the Mangham and Silver and Constable-McCormick reports based on the detailed analysis of aspects of the situation in Britain, and the Handy report a comparative survey of management development in five countries the United States, Germany, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Each of the reports found substantial weaknesses in Britain's system of management development, both in its own context and especially in comparison to their main competitors. All also noted the implications of ineffective management development for British economic efficiency and competitiveness and saw it as a potential, if partial, cause of

Handbook of Research on Comparative Human Resource Management

International Journal of Management Reviews, 2012

Research on leadership development in organizations is abundant, as are the resources invested in... more Research on leadership development in organizations is abundant, as are the resources invested in developing their leaders. Although rarely made explicit, much of this writing and activity is driven by functionalist assumptions, with a primary concern for good design and enhanced corporate performance. Given the politically sensitive, culturally complex and institutionally embedded nature of leadership, as well as controversy over the way leadership itself is best defined and developed, the author argues that this reliance on a single perspective is potentially limiting. The aim of this paper is to enhance leadership development practice in organizations by proposing a fresh and theoretically informed approach for exploring the multiple meanings of leadership development. This is done, first, by clarifying the discursive assumptions underlying studies in this field and revealing the distinctive insights that arise from functionalist, interpretive, dialogic and critical discourses of leadership development; and second, by exploring how each of these discourses, or ‘readings’, might promote quite different approaches to leadership development in organizations.