Gail T Fairhurst
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 183986 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Gail T Fairhurst |
| PRENOMES | Gail T |
| SOBRENOME | Fairhurst |
| ASSINATURA | FAIRHURST G T |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Cincinnati |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9225-8284 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 30 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 483 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 30 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1984 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 11 |
Why Words Matter
Writing for the masses
In this forum contribution, I detail my experiences writing for organizational practitioners and the general public. I also make several recommendations for those wanting to pursue this path
Discursive Leadership and Material Concerns
This paper explores discourse-material relationships in union leadership contexts. We searched several databases and journals across the social sciences, focusing on the negotiative, relational, material, and cultural aspects of union leader and rank-and-file discourse and communication. We found 33 discursive leadership studies and conducted a thematic analysis to find three material themes broadly reflected in the literature: economics (wages, …
Collective dimensions of leadership
In this introductory article we explain the impetus for creating the Special Issue, along with its goals and the process by which we created it. We present a map of the terrain of collective leadership (CL) that builds on earlier frameworks, recognizing that the terrain is expanding and has become increasingly difficult to traverse. The map is comprised of two axes or dimensions. The first axis, the ‘locus of leadership,’ captures how scholars co…
Studying collective leadership
In the concluding article, we move from providing a map of the collective leadership (CL) research field that has been conducted to date to providing a travel guide that we hope can inspire both experienced and novice travelers to push out the frontiers of exploration of CL. A Rapid Appraisal analysis of the extant CL research revealed that most of the work to date has focused on shared and distributed leadership; taken an empirical rather than a…
Dialectical tensions in the narrative discourse of Donald J. Trump and Pope Francis
Reacting to the impact of Pope Francis and President Donald J. Trump on the world stage, New York Times essayist, Austen Ivereigh, asked the question, “Is Pope Francis the Anti-Trump?” He concluded that the answer is not an obvious one. Using qualitative methods, this study explores this question through the dialectical tensions and management strategies present in the narratives evoked in the many speeches and tweets of Pope Francis and Presiden…
Configuring shared and hierarchical leadership through authoring
How does organizing proceed when leadership is both shared and hierarchical? Who sets the context, how and when do people share influence, and who produces authoritative texts for going forward? Using the lens of authoring claims and grants (Taylor and Van Every, 2014), we display the complex relationship between shared and hierarchical leadership in meeting interactions in a Danish municipality attempting to implement shared leadership. Our find…
“I Am … I Said”
In reviewing identity and identity work literature, two overarching themes emerge that highlight the theoretical potency of viewing individual identity through the lens of paradox. First, while paradox is variously implicit/explicit in extant work, four primary paradoxes of identity usefully emerge that conceptually map the tensional processes of identity work: (1) paradoxes of entity, (2) paradoxes of conformity, (3) paradoxes of temporality, an…
Differences in Understanding Generation in the Workforce
From an analysis of two age diverse samples in which we explored the ways “generation” is understood in the workforce, we make several contributions to generational research. First, we propose new conceptualizations on generations in the workforce. They are: contribution (a generation is defined based on the impact its members make on society or organizations) and generation as an ambiguous or irrelevant concept (generational categories are meani…
Contradictions, Dialectics, and Paradoxes in Organizations
This article presents a constitutive approach to the study of organizational contradictions, dialectics, paradoxes, and tensions. In particular, it highlights five constitutive dimensions (i.e., discourse, developmental actions, socio-historical conditions, presence in multiples, and praxis) that appear across the literature in five metatheoretical traditions—process-based systems, structuration, critical, postmodern, and relational dialectics. I…
Revisiting “Organizations as Discursive Constructions”
In this article, we express our appreciation for the honor accorded our 2004 Communication Theory article, “Organizations as Discursive Constructions.” We do this through situating the 2004 article historically so the reader can appreciate the milieu that surrounded the publication of this piece. We also trace the different ways that scholars have applied the ideas in this publication, including the debates and critiques of this perspective. Fina…
Leadership
This paper reviews the literature on communication in organizations most relevant to the study of leadership. Although leadership communication research has a history of significant overlap with leadership psychology, the value commitments of a communicative orientation now find expression in a large body of extant literature that this paper reviews. These value commitments, which cross several theoretical paradigms, serve as the organizing frame…
Discourse Perspectives on Organizational Communication
The Social Construction of Leadership
A growing body of literature now exists concerning the social construction of leadership. This literature draws on a variety of definitions of social constructionism, multiple constructs, and an array of perspectives, approaches, and methods. To identify and understand the differences among them, this article provides a sailing guide, comprising four key dimensions, to the social construction of leadership. It applies the guide to the social cons…
Considering context in discursive leadership research
In addition to leadership psychology, there is another journey to understand the context of leadership that takes as its starting point the linguistic turn in the social and the organizational sciences. Those impacted by the linguistic turn are broadly social constructionist, discursive, and more qualitative than mainstream leadership scholars. In varying degrees, these scholars view context as multi-layered, co-created, contestable, and locally …
Leadership as the Hybrid Production of Presence(s)
Leadership scholars and lay actors often attribute a certain presence to great leaders in describing a commanding style or a charismatic personality. However, leadership presence and its mirror concept, absence, have been difficult concepts for researchers to study. This article proposes to redress this short coming using actor-network theory (ANT). In ANT, the focus is on human and nonhuman agents, their hybrid forms, networked socialaction, and…
Living Leadership
This article offers a practical theory of leadership grounded in systemic thinking and social constructionism. A systemic constructionist approach conceptualizes leadership as a co-created, performative, attributional, and contextual process where the ideas articulated in talk or action are recognized by others as progressing tasks that are important to them. Using a systemic constructionist framework, we argue that leadership theory and research…
Discursive Leadership
This text presents a new way for scholars and graduate students to examine and explore leadership. Differing from a psychological approach to leadership which tries to get inside the heads of leaders and employees, the text focuses on the social or communicative aspects between them
Standing by” Numbers and Statistics in Organizational Discourse Analysis
“What role, if any, do numbers and statistics have in your work as an organizational discourse analyst, and why?” was the question that Karen Tracy posed to me when putting together this colloquy
Resistance leadership
This article examines the role of leadership in mobilizing collective resistance in the workplace. Given the scarcity of dialogue between critical scholars and leadership studies, relatively little consideration is given to the role of leadership in resisting and potentially transforming structures of domination. The article describes some of the reasons why these areas of research have produced so little mutual work. We then make the argument th…
Reframing The Art of Framing
This article offers three explanations for why some leaders embrace the skill of framing and others struggle with it. The first explanation draws from philosophical arguments in social constructionism over relativism, essentialism, and agency to draw boundaries around that which is open to framing and that which is not. The second explanation draws from O’Keefe’s (1988; 1997) theory of ‘Message Design Logics’, which argues that the logics that ma…
Speech Timing and Spacing
This article examines how communication contributes to the achievement of spatio-temporal closures through the interactional enactment of sequences called ‘schemata.’ Human and nonhuman interactants not only bring into being but also contribute to the opening, development and closing of organizational sequences, which constitute and circumscribe what gets done collectively. Timing and spacing thus consist of creating and sometimes interrupting wh…
Textuality and Agency in Interaction Analysis
This article examines the role of textuality and agency in organizational interaction analysis. Six genres of interaction analysis research are reviewed, some of which address the question of how organizations are discursively constituted. Although interaction analysts agree on the role of discourse/text in the constitution of organizations, no such agreement exists on the role of meaning and agency. After addressing several criticisms of interac…
Organizations as Discursive Constructions
Journal Article Organizations as Discursive Constructions Get access Gail T. Fairhurst, Gail T. Fairhurst 1Gail T. Fairhurst is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Cincinnati. 3concerning this article may be directed to the first author at Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Linda Putnam Linda Putnam 2Linda L. Putnam is a professor in the Department of Speech Communication at Te…
The leader‐member exchange patterns of women leaders in industry
This study takes as problematic the communicatively constructed nature of Leader‐Member Exchange (LMX) and gender. Actual, routine work conversations for six female leaders and their 16 male and female members were analyzed using a case comparison method. Constant comparison of conversations produced 12 discourse patterns that successfully discriminated between high, medium, and low LMX relationships. The analysis focuses upon the functioning of …
Considering context in discursive leadership research
In addition to leadership psychology, there is another journey to understand the context of leadership that takes as its starting point the linguistic turn in the social and the organizational sciences. Those impacted by the linguistic turn are broadly social constructionist, discursive, and more qualitative than mainstream leadership scholars. In varying degrees, these scholars view context as multi-layered, co-created, contestable, and locally …
Leadership
This paper reviews the literature on communication in organizations most relevant to the study of leadership. Although leadership communication research has a history of significant overlap with leadership psychology, the value commitments of a communicative orientation now find expression in a large body of extant literature that this paper reviews. These value commitments, which cross several theoretical paradigms, serve as the organizing frame…
Organizations as Discursive Constructions
Journal Article Organizations as Discursive Constructions Get access Gail T. Fairhurst, Gail T. Fairhurst 1Gail T. Fairhurst is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Cincinnati. 3concerning this article may be directed to the first author at Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Linda Putnam Linda Putnam 2Linda L. Putnam is a professor in the Department of Speech Communication at Te…
The leader‐member exchange patterns of women leaders in industry
This study takes as problematic the communicatively constructed nature of Leader‐Member Exchange (LMX) and gender. Actual, routine work conversations for six female leaders and their 16 male and female members were analyzed using a case comparison method. Constant comparison of conversations produced 12 discourse patterns that successfully discriminated between high, medium, and low LMX relationships. The analysis focuses upon the functioning of …
Resistance leadership
This article examines the role of leadership in mobilizing collective resistance in the workplace. Given the scarcity of dialogue between critical scholars and leadership studies, relatively little consideration is given to the role of leadership in resisting and potentially transforming structures of domination. The article describes some of the reasons why these areas of research have produced so little mutual work. We then make the argument th…
Collective dimensions of leadership
In this introductory article we explain the impetus for creating the Special Issue, along with its goals and the process by which we created it. We present a map of the terrain of collective leadership (CL) that builds on earlier frameworks, recognizing that the terrain is expanding and has become increasingly difficult to traverse. The map is comprised of two axes or dimensions. The first axis, the ‘locus of leadership,’ captures how scholars co…
Social structure in leader‐member interaction
The investigation reported here was designed to examine how one leader and three members display social structure through their use of power and social distance language forms. Specifically, this work extends initial research into the simultaneous operation of Leader‐Member Exchange and Average Leadership Style models, by showing how some conversational resources distinguish “in,”; from “middle,”; from “out‐group”; relationships, whereas others n…
Leadership as the Hybrid Production of Presence(s)
Leadership scholars and lay actors often attribute a certain presence to great leaders in describing a commanding style or a charismatic personality. However, leadership presence and its mirror concept, absence, have been difficult concepts for researchers to study. This article proposes to redress this short coming using actor-network theory (ANT). In ANT, the focus is on human and nonhuman agents, their hybrid forms, networked socialaction, and…
Configuring shared and hierarchical leadership through authoring
How does organizing proceed when leadership is both shared and hierarchical? Who sets the context, how and when do people share influence, and who produces authoritative texts for going forward? Using the lens of authoring claims and grants (Taylor and Van Every, 2014), we display the complex relationship between shared and hierarchical leadership in meeting interactions in a Danish municipality attempting to implement shared leadership. Our find…
Studying collective leadership
In the concluding article, we move from providing a map of the collective leadership (CL) research field that has been conducted to date to providing a travel guide that we hope can inspire both experienced and novice travelers to push out the frontiers of exploration of CL. A Rapid Appraisal analysis of the extant CL research revealed that most of the work to date has focused on shared and distributed leadership; taken an empirical rather than a…
Living Leadership
This article offers a practical theory of leadership grounded in systemic thinking and social constructionism. A systemic constructionist approach conceptualizes leadership as a co-created, performative, attributional, and contextual process where the ideas articulated in talk or action are recognized by others as progressing tasks that are important to them. Using a systemic constructionist framework, we argue that leadership theory and research…
Face Support in Controlling Poor Performance
The purpose of this study was to describe the use of face support in managerial communication on controlling poor performance. Face support was defined according to the degree of approval (positive face) and the degree of freedom given to poor performers to define a course of action (autonomy). Seventy bank branch managers were interviewed about a recent performance problem they had at tempted to control. Managers' use of positive face and autono…
Reframing The Art of Framing
This article offers three explanations for why some leaders embrace the skill of framing and others struggle with it. The first explanation draws from philosophical arguments in social constructionism over relativism, essentialism, and agency to draw boundaries around that which is open to framing and that which is not. The second explanation draws from O’Keefe’s (1988; 1997) theory of ‘Message Design Logics’, which argues that the logics that ma…
Differences in Understanding Generation in the Workforce
From an analysis of two age diverse samples in which we explored the ways “generation” is understood in the workforce, we make several contributions to generational research. First, we propose new conceptualizations on generations in the workforce. They are: contribution (a generation is defined based on the impact its members make on society or organizations) and generation as an ambiguous or irrelevant concept (generational categories are meani…
Manager-Subordinate Control Patterns and Judgments About the Relationship
Revisiting “Organizations as Discursive Constructions”
In this article, we express our appreciation for the honor accorded our 2004 Communication Theory article, “Organizations as Discursive Constructions.” We do this through situating the 2004 article historically so the reader can appreciate the milieu that surrounded the publication of this piece. We also trace the different ways that scholars have applied the ideas in this publication, including the debates and critiques of this perspective. Fina…
Dialectical tensions in the narrative discourse of Donald J. Trump and Pope Francis
Reacting to the impact of Pope Francis and President Donald J. Trump on the world stage, New York Times essayist, Austen Ivereigh, asked the question, “Is Pope Francis the Anti-Trump?” He concluded that the answer is not an obvious one. Using qualitative methods, this study explores this question through the dialectical tensions and management strategies present in the narratives evoked in the many speeches and tweets of Pope Francis and Presiden…
Discourse Perspectives on Organizational Communication
Male-Female Communication on the Job
Managerial Control and Discipline
(1984). Managerial Control and Discipline: Whips and Chains. Annals of the International Communication Association: Vol. 8, Communication Yearbook 8, pp. 558-593
Face Support in Controlling Poor Performance
The purpose of this study was to describe the use of face support in managerial communication on controlling poor performance. Face support was defined according to the degree of approval (positive face) and the degree of freedom given to poor performers to define a course of action (autonomy). Seventy bank branch managers were interviewed about a recent performance problem they had at tempted to control. Managers' use of positive face and autono…
Male-Female Communication on the Job
Manager-Subordinate Control Patterns and Judgments About the Relationship
Social structure in leader‐member interaction
The investigation reported here was designed to examine how one leader and three members display social structure through their use of power and social distance language forms. Specifically, this work extends initial research into the simultaneous operation of Leader‐Member Exchange and Average Leadership Style models, by showing how some conversational resources distinguish “in,”; from “middle,”; from “out‐group”; relationships, whereas others n…
The leader‐member exchange patterns of women leaders in industry
This study takes as problematic the communicatively constructed nature of Leader‐Member Exchange (LMX) and gender. Actual, routine work conversations for six female leaders and their 16 male and female members were analyzed using a case comparison method. Constant comparison of conversations produced 12 discourse patterns that successfully discriminated between high, medium, and low LMX relationships. The analysis focuses upon the functioning of …
Speech Timing and Spacing
This article examines how communication contributes to the achievement of spatio-temporal closures through the interactional enactment of sequences called ‘schemata.’ Human and nonhuman interactants not only bring into being but also contribute to the opening, development and closing of organizational sequences, which constitute and circumscribe what gets done collectively. Timing and spacing thus consist of creating and sometimes interrupting wh…
Textuality and Agency in Interaction Analysis
This article examines the role of textuality and agency in organizational interaction analysis. Six genres of interaction analysis research are reviewed, some of which address the question of how organizations are discursively constituted. Although interaction analysts agree on the role of discourse/text in the constitution of organizations, no such agreement exists on the role of meaning and agency. After addressing several criticisms of interac…
Organizations as Discursive Constructions
Journal Article Organizations as Discursive Constructions Get access Gail T. Fairhurst, Gail T. Fairhurst 1Gail T. Fairhurst is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Cincinnati. 3concerning this article may be directed to the first author at Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Linda Putnam Linda Putnam 2Linda L. Putnam is a professor in the Department of Speech Communication at Te…
Reframing The Art of Framing
This article offers three explanations for why some leaders embrace the skill of framing and others struggle with it. The first explanation draws from philosophical arguments in social constructionism over relativism, essentialism, and agency to draw boundaries around that which is open to framing and that which is not. The second explanation draws from O’Keefe’s (1988; 1997) theory of ‘Message Design Logics’, which argues that the logics that ma…
Discursive Leadership
This text presents a new way for scholars and graduate students to examine and explore leadership. Differing from a psychological approach to leadership which tries to get inside the heads of leaders and employees, the text focuses on the social or communicative aspects between them
Standing by” Numbers and Statistics in Organizational Discourse Analysis
“What role, if any, do numbers and statistics have in your work as an organizational discourse analyst, and why?” was the question that Karen Tracy posed to me when putting together this colloquy
Resistance leadership
This article examines the role of leadership in mobilizing collective resistance in the workplace. Given the scarcity of dialogue between critical scholars and leadership studies, relatively little consideration is given to the role of leadership in resisting and potentially transforming structures of domination. The article describes some of the reasons why these areas of research have produced so little mutual work. We then make the argument th…
Living Leadership
This article offers a practical theory of leadership grounded in systemic thinking and social constructionism. A systemic constructionist approach conceptualizes leadership as a co-created, performative, attributional, and contextual process where the ideas articulated in talk or action are recognized by others as progressing tasks that are important to them. Using a systemic constructionist framework, we argue that leadership theory and research…
Considering context in discursive leadership research
In addition to leadership psychology, there is another journey to understand the context of leadership that takes as its starting point the linguistic turn in the social and the organizational sciences. Those impacted by the linguistic turn are broadly social constructionist, discursive, and more qualitative than mainstream leadership scholars. In varying degrees, these scholars view context as multi-layered, co-created, contestable, and locally …
Leadership as the Hybrid Production of Presence(s)
Leadership scholars and lay actors often attribute a certain presence to great leaders in describing a commanding style or a charismatic personality. However, leadership presence and its mirror concept, absence, have been difficult concepts for researchers to study. This article proposes to redress this short coming using actor-network theory (ANT). In ANT, the focus is on human and nonhuman agents, their hybrid forms, networked socialaction, and…
The Social Construction of Leadership
A growing body of literature now exists concerning the social construction of leadership. This literature draws on a variety of definitions of social constructionism, multiple constructs, and an array of perspectives, approaches, and methods. To identify and understand the differences among them, this article provides a sailing guide, comprising four key dimensions, to the social construction of leadership. It applies the guide to the social cons…
Discourse Perspectives on Organizational Communication
Leadership
This paper reviews the literature on communication in organizations most relevant to the study of leadership. Although leadership communication research has a history of significant overlap with leadership psychology, the value commitments of a communicative orientation now find expression in a large body of extant literature that this paper reviews. These value commitments, which cross several theoretical paradigms, serve as the organizing frame…
Revisiting “Organizations as Discursive Constructions”
In this article, we express our appreciation for the honor accorded our 2004 Communication Theory article, “Organizations as Discursive Constructions.” We do this through situating the 2004 article historically so the reader can appreciate the milieu that surrounded the publication of this piece. We also trace the different ways that scholars have applied the ideas in this publication, including the debates and critiques of this perspective. Fina…
Contradictions, Dialectics, and Paradoxes in Organizations
This article presents a constitutive approach to the study of organizational contradictions, dialectics, paradoxes, and tensions. In particular, it highlights five constitutive dimensions (i.e., discourse, developmental actions, socio-historical conditions, presence in multiples, and praxis) that appear across the literature in five metatheoretical traditions—process-based systems, structuration, critical, postmodern, and relational dialectics. I…
“I Am … I Said”
In reviewing identity and identity work literature, two overarching themes emerge that highlight the theoretical potency of viewing individual identity through the lens of paradox. First, while paradox is variously implicit/explicit in extant work, four primary paradoxes of identity usefully emerge that conceptually map the tensional processes of identity work: (1) paradoxes of entity, (2) paradoxes of conformity, (3) paradoxes of temporality, an…
Differences in Understanding Generation in the Workforce
From an analysis of two age diverse samples in which we explored the ways “generation” is understood in the workforce, we make several contributions to generational research. First, we propose new conceptualizations on generations in the workforce. They are: contribution (a generation is defined based on the impact its members make on society or organizations) and generation as an ambiguous or irrelevant concept (generational categories are meani…
Dialectical tensions in the narrative discourse of Donald J. Trump and Pope Francis
Reacting to the impact of Pope Francis and President Donald J. Trump on the world stage, New York Times essayist, Austen Ivereigh, asked the question, “Is Pope Francis the Anti-Trump?” He concluded that the answer is not an obvious one. Using qualitative methods, this study explores this question through the dialectical tensions and management strategies present in the narratives evoked in the many speeches and tweets of Pope Francis and Presiden…
Configuring shared and hierarchical leadership through authoring
How does organizing proceed when leadership is both shared and hierarchical? Who sets the context, how and when do people share influence, and who produces authoritative texts for going forward? Using the lens of authoring claims and grants (Taylor and Van Every, 2014), we display the complex relationship between shared and hierarchical leadership in meeting interactions in a Danish municipality attempting to implement shared leadership. Our find…
Sociology (24 obras) · Management and Organizational Studies (20 obras) · Epistemology (17 obras) · Psychology (14 obras) · Philosophy (12 obras) · Political science (12 obras) · Computer Science (9 obras) · Social Psychology (9 obras) · Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior (8 obras) · Leadership style (7 obras)