Sociomateriality and embodiment of leadership

Arja Ropo

Chapter 85 in Elgar Encyclopedia of Innovation Management, 2025, pp 316-318 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Unlike mainstream leadership research that views leadership as a human-human relationship, this entry introduces a novel conception of leadership as a sociomaterial and embodied phenomenon. This view draws from aesthetic organization theory that builds on the onto-epistemological foundation of this approach. Sociomateriality of leadership is explored through physical spaces and places that do not have an independent agency over people, but the leadership influence occurs through sensuous, felt experiences, emotions, and memories of the material environment. As examples of the interplay between innovation, creativity, and leadership, three vignettes as snapshots of a documentary film are presented: actor in theatre, shipbuilder at work, and electricians in an old dry-dock. Sociomateriality of leadership occurs and can be examined in and through the sensuous bodies experiencing the social and material environment. This approach to leadership opens up a new avenue to understand how aesthetics and embodiment are fundamental for innovation and creativity in a material world.

Keywords: Leadership; Sociomateriality; Embodiment; Aesthetics; Creativity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035306442
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