Leadership, Management and the Welsh Language

Schedlitzki, Doris; Edwards, Gareth; While, Gethin

Abstract

© 2016 European Academy of Management Adopting a multilingual perspective, this empirical paper explores the varied use and meanings of referents of leadership and management among 24 Welsh senior managers. We argue the importance of recognizing the linguistic imperialism of the English language – and its dominant leadership discourse of the heroic individual leader – over locally signified referents of leadership and management in other languages and discourses. At present, the lexical item leadership lacks evaluation of its relevance and meaning within other languages and multilingual contexts. We add to this gap through a discussion of research that analyses 24 Welsh senior managers’ reflections on referents of leadership and management and their varied meanings in their two official workplace languages, namely, Welsh and English. Based on the findings, we explore linguistic power dynamics represented in their reflections on this language diverse work setting and conclude with implications for the practice of leadership and management.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 18, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Oct 9, 2016
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Aug 18, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 9, 2018
• Journal: European Management Review
• Print ISSN: 1740-4754
• Electronic ISSN: 1740-4762
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 19-31
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12087
• Keywords: leadership; management; language; multilingualism; Wales
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/889370
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/emre.12087
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Schedlitzki, D., Edwards, G. and While, G. (2017) Leadership, management and the Welsh language. European Management Review, 14 (1). pp. 19-31, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/emre.12087. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.
• Contract Date: Aug 18, 2016