Problematizing leadership learning facilitation through a trickster archetype: An investigation into power and identity in liminal spaces

This study uses the archetype of a ‘trickster’ to reflect back on, and hence problematize, the role of the educator/facilitator identity in leadership learning. This is based on the view that a trickster is a permanent resident in liminal spaces and that these liminal spaces play an important role in leadership learning. Our approach was based on the reading of the trickster literature alongside reflective conversations on our own experiences of facilitation of leadership learning, development and education. We suggest that paying attention to the trickster tale draws attention to the romanticization of leadership development and its facilitation as based on a response to crisis that leads to a further enhancement of the leader as a hero. Hence, it also offers ways to problematize leadership learning by uncovering the shadow side of facilitation and underlying power relations. We therefore contribute by showing how, as facilitators, we can use the trickster archetype to think more critically, reflectively and reflexively about our role and practices as educators, in particular, the ethical and power-related issues. In our conclusions, we make recommendations for research, theory and practice and invite other facilitators to share with us their trickster tales.

A Longitudinal Perspective on Sustainability and Innovation Governmentality: The Case of the Olympic Games as a Mega-Event

The purpose of this research is to analyze how governance is related to sustainability and innovation in mega-events over time by looking at the Olympic Games as a case study. Three main contributions are made to management research and practice. First, Foucauldian governmentality is built upon and enriched with a longitudinal perspective by following the evolution of Visibility, Techne, Episteme, and Identity analytics of governmentality. Second, an innovative methodology based on interviews, a systematic documentary review, and software-assisted thematic auto-coding for a theory-led structured analysis is applied. Third, the theoretical and empirical contribution of this study on the longitudinal aspects of governmentality over different parties and outlets of information could be used to guide practical and strategic decisions for managers and policy makers. In addition to its scholarly importance, this work is needed because mega-events can have a sustainable long-term impact, balancing legacy and innovative change.

‘Doggy-biopolitics’: Governing via the First Dog

Biopolitics, traditionally understood as management of the human population, has been extended to include nonhuman animal life and posthuman life. In this article, we turn to literatures that advance Foucauldian biopolitics to explore the mode of government enabled by the dog of the US presidential family – the First Dog called Bo Obama. With analytical focus on vitalisation efforts, we follow the construction of Bo in various outlets, such as the websites of the White House and an animal rights organisation. Bo’s microphysical escapades and the negotiation thereof show how contemporary biopolitics, which targets the vitality of the dog population, is linked to seductive neoliberal management techniques and subjectivities. We discuss ‘cuddly management’ in relation to Foucauldian scholarship within organisation and management studies and propose that the construction of Bo facilitates interspecies family norms and an empathic embrace of difference circumscribed by vitalisation efforts that we pinpoint as ‘doggy-biopolitics’.