Leadership and posthuman ethics

Winchester, Nik (2024). Leadership and posthuman ethics. In: Knights, David; Liu, Helena; Smolović Jones, Owain and Wilson, Suze eds. The Routledge Critical Companion to Leadership Studies. Routledge companions in business, management and marketing. Abingdon, UK and New York, USA: Routledge, pp. 52–63.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003363125-6

Abstract

Critical leadership studies, either implicitly or explicitly, examines normative questions circulating around leadership practice. To this end, in this chapter we explore posthuman ethics as it resonates with leadership. We begin by exploring the broad tenets of posthumanism understood in terms of a radical and thoroughgoing decentring of the human towards an account of vibrant relations in which dualisms of the human/non-human are dissolved. As an ethical theory posthumanism seeks to offer an account of lively entanglements through which responsibility flows and heteronomy is valorised. In exploring this understanding in terms of leadership we identify a series of practices that are affinitive with a posthuman ethical approach, namely: enunciating from within relations; listening to that which does not have a voice; creative conflict within and affirmative dissolving of networks; and querying partiality and enabling curiosity. Since posthuman ethics has a particular affinity with issues around the climate crisis the theme is weaved through the chapter. In conclusion we claim that, with certain reservations, posthuman ethics offers a potentially rich way into leadership as long we retain a lively relation between the two.

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