Abstract
Leadership is increasingly becoming one of the most valued concepts in contemporary society—one that is theorized, discussed, and deconstructed in many fields, ranging from academic monographs to popular media articles. In some contexts, such as many Western individualistic societies, leadership is equated with personal charisma and power. In other contexts, leadership may be viewed as a mode of behavior that can foster ethical or collectivist principles and lead to the betterment of society. Robyn Walker and Jolanta Aritz’s book, Leadership Talk: A Discourse Approach to Leader Emergence, sees leadership as a mode of communication and examines it from the perspective of language use and discourse patterns.
The work’s main tenet is that leadership—defined succinctly as the ability to influence others—emerges through communicative practice rather than personality attributes or psychological disposition. This position suggests that individuals must be attributed leadership status by their followers, and they must continually enact this status through their performance in everyday communicative activities. The authors convincingly argue that leadership is expressed in a set of problem-solving and negotiation skills that are developed through practice in specific professional and social contexts.
The approach outlined in the book is based on a social constructionist position that challenges both empirical and positivist frameworks. This outlook perceives leadership as “a process that emerges in a particular situation, a process that involves meaning making among the actors who are a part of that situation” (p. 11) and focuses on the ways in which participants in business interactions use language to advance a goal or discuss a problem. The book sheds light on the common confusion between leadership and management, by showing how the former construct goes beyond the formal authority of management that grants the individual manager legitimate power to organize, reward, and punish employees.
One important strength of this volume is its blending of explanations of major theories of leadership with the authors’ primary research involving data collected in professional contexts, such as business meetings. Using their own research data allows Walker and Aritz to illustrate and discuss concepts while simultaneously presenting original results. These include, for example, the interesting finding that speakers of East Asian languages in homogeneous groups use “latching” (a form of conversational turn-taking where a speaker takes over from a previous one without interrupting) more than American-born speakers of English do. Through its discussion of primary data, the book covers important distinctions in leadership theory, such as typologies of leaders, and the effects of gender and cross-cultural issues. The examination of these topics brings into focus and explores the work of influential theorists of culture, especially Geert Hofstede and Robert House.
A second important strength of this volume is its focus on both theories of leadership and distinctions of language use developed in linguistics. In this respect, the book functions as a bridge between management theory and linguistics. In particular, it shows how the linguistic categories of turn-taking, overlapping, backchanneling, interrupting, and latching can be used in the analysis of the activities of leaders. Through an appraisal of cases that illustrate the use of these categories, the authors are able to identify the ways in which the talk involved in group interactions constructs different types of leaders, such as directive, cooperative, and collaborative.
The book is written in a lucid and concise style, clearly organized into seven topic-chapters with useful sections, such as end-of-chapter summaries and reflection points that encourage readers to apply the described concepts to familiar situations in their own experience. It also provides a well-selected, useful, and practical overview of the major theories of leadership, explained clearly and illustrated with original examples. This work is useful in guiding readers to the existing literature and in providing direction for further reading.
Although the book is largely based on approaches developed in linguistics and discourse studies, it is easily understandable by readers who have no background in these disciplines. It would interest a wide range of readers, including students of business communication, theorists of leadership, and general readers who are interested in the elements involved in the social and interactive construction of leaders.