Histories of leadership in the Copenhagen Phil – A cultural view of narrativity in studies of leadership in symphony orchestras

Abstract

The article offers a cultural view of narrativity in studies of leadership in addition to the mimetic, the structural and the communicative views to account for the role of culture in making sense of leadership. It proposes three interlinked aspects of narrativity: performativity, structure and cultural embeddedness as methodological considerations challenging the alleged innocence of narratives. It demonstrates the cultural propensity of certain understandings of leadership, and it suggests historical accounts of leadership constitute templates for future understandings of leadership. This is unfolded in the case of a symphony orchestra, and exemplified by two narratives producing different understandings of leadership.

Keywords:

• Narratives
• leadership
• cultural embeddedness
• symphony orchestra
• sensemaking

Notes

1. Lebrecht, The Maestro Myth; Buch, “‘Beethoven’s Ninth’”.

2. Rothstein, “Be Smart as a Lemming”.

3. Grint, The Arts of Leadership, 245.

4. McNamee and Gergen, “Relational Responsibility Resources for Sustainable Dialogue,” 5.

5. Clark and Rowlinson, “The Treatment of History in Organisation Studies,” 336.

6. Keulen and Kroeze, “Understanding Management Gurus and Historical Narratives”.

7. Koivunen and Wennes, “Show us the Sound!”; and Koivunen, “Leadership in Symphony Orchestras”; Murrell, “Emergent Theories of Leadership”.

8. Mintzberg, “Covert Leadership”; Rowlinson et al. “Research Strategies for Organizational History,” 260.

9. Hansen, “Business History”; Hansen, “From Finance Capitalism to Financialization”; Mordhorst, “Arla and Danish National Identity”; Rowlinson and Procter, “Organizational Culture and Business History”.

10. Barry and Elmes, “Strategy Retold,” 431; Brown and Thompson, “A Narrative Approach,” 1145; White, “The Question of Narrative”; Ricoeur, “Time and Narrative vol. 1” and “Time and Narrative vol. 3”.

11. Mordhorst, “Arla and Danish National Identity,” 119.

12. Such as drawn up by Boje, “Reflections,” 254; and further elaborated in Boje “Storytelling Organizations,” 7; Boje “Narrative Methods,” 2; Gabriel, “Storytelling in Organizations,” 5; and Czarniawska “A Narrative Approach,” 2; Czarniawska “Narratives in Social Science Research,” 19; and Czarniawska “A Theory of Organizing,” 32.

13. Barthes “Mythologies”; Fischer, “Narration as Human Communication Paradigm”; Brown and Thompson, “A Narrative Approach”.

14. Ricoeur, “Time and Narrative vols. 1 and 3”; White, “The Question of Narrative”; Aristotle “Poetics”.

15. Gergen, “Realities and Relations”; Gergen and Thatchenkery, “Developing Dialogue for Discerning Differences”; Fairhurst, “Discursive Approaches to Leadership,” 495; Fairhurst and Grant, “The Social Construction of Leadership,” 186.

16. Hosking, “Not Leaders, Not Followers,” 9.

17. Berger and Luckmann, Social Construction of Reality, 87.

18. Alvesson and Deetz, “Doing Critical Management Research,” 52.

19. Such as argued by Rowlinson et al., “Research Strategies for Organizational History,” 252.

20. Decker et al., “New Business Histories,” 32.

21. de Jong et al., “Towards a New Business History?,” 10–11.

22. Hansen, “Business History” and Hansen, “From Finance Capitalism to Financialization”; McCloskey, “The Rhetoric of Economics”; McCloskey, “The Rhetoric of Economics”, (1986/1998); Mordhorst, “From Counterfactual History to Counternarrative History”; Mordhorst, “Arla and Danish National Identity”; Rowlinson et al., “Social Remembering and Organizational Memory”; Kroeze and Keulen, “Leading a Multinational is History in Practice:”; Keulen and Kroeze, “Understanding Management Gurus and Historical Narratives”; Brown and Thompson, “A Narrative Approach”; Rowlinson et al., “Research Strategies for Organizational History”.

23. Most notably Czarniawska “A Narrative Approach”, “Narratives in Social Science”, “A Theory of Organizing”; Boje “Narrative Methods”, “Storytelling Organizations”, “Reflections”; and Gabriel “Storytelling in Organizations”.

24. See, e.g. Fairhurst “Discursive Leadership”; Parry and Hansen “The Organizational Story as Leadership”; Fleming, “Narrative Leadership”; Meindl et al., “The Romance of Leadership”.

25. Andrews et al., “Doing Narrative Reseach”; Bamberg et al., “Selves and Identities”.

26. See, e.g. Barry, “Telling Changes”; Fenton and Langley, “Strategy as Practice”; and Brown and Thompson, “A Narrative Approach”.

27. White, “The Question of Narrative in Contemporary Historical Theory”; Ricoeur, “Time and Narrative”, vol. 1.

28. White, “Narrative in Historical Theory,” 3, clarifies his position: For the narrative historian, the historical method consists in the investigation of the documents in order to determine what is the true or most plausible story that can be told about the events of which they are evidence. A true narrative account, on this view, is not so much a product of the historian’s poetic talents, as the narrative account of imaginary events is conceived to be, as a necessary result of a proper application of historical ‘method’. The form of the discourse, the narrative, adds nothing to the content of the representation, but is rather a simulacrum of the structure and processes of real events. And insofar as this representation resembles the events of which it is a representation, it can be taken to be a true account. Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, vols. 1 & 3 drawing on Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenology presupposes a form of reality in his extensive elaboration of his notion of mimesis.

29. Novick, “That Noble Dream”.

30. Rowlinson et al., “Research Strategies for Organizational History,” 252.

31. Meindl et al., “The Romance of Leadership”.

32. Hosking, “Moving Relationality” and “Not Leaders, Not Followers”.

33. Fairhurst, “Discursive Leadership”.

34. Uhl-Bien, “Relational Leadership Theory”.

35. Collinson, “Critical Leadership Studies”.

36. Dachler, “From Individualism to Post-Heroic Practices”.

37. Hansen, “Business History”; Hansen, “From Finance Capitalism to Financialization”.

38. Rowlinson and Procter, “Organizational Culture and Business History”.

39. Rowlinson et al., “Social Remembering and Organizational Memory”.

40. Mordhorst, “Arla and Danish National Identity”.

41. Musacchio Adoriso, “Organizational Remembering as Narrative”.

42. Holt and Popp, “Emotion, Succession, and the Family Firm”.

43. Bruner, “Acts of Meaning”, “Actual Minds, Possible Worlds”.

44. Bruner and Goodman, ”Value and Need as Organizing Factors in Perception”.

45. A view Bruner first published comprehensively in “Actual Minds, Possible Worlds” (1985), and shared with Fischer “Narration and Human Communication Paradigm” (1984) and Fischer “The Narrative Paradigm” (1985) on which Weick and Browning (1986) draw to establish the importance of narration in understanding organisations.

46. Ankersmit, “Historical Representation”.

47. Polkinghorne, “Narrative Knowing,” 134; Boje, “Storytelling Organizations,” 7.

48. Bruner, Acts of Meaning, 47.

49. Barthes and Duisit, “An Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative”; Polkinghorne, “Narrative Knowing,” 14; White, “The Question of Narrative in Contemporary Historical Theory,” 13.

50. Bruner, “Acts of Meaning,” 56, citing Bartlett “Remembering”.

51. Czarniawska, “Karl Weick,” 271; Weick, “The Social Psychology of Organizing,” 4; Weick, “Sensemaking in Organizations,” 145–6. See Weick, “The Man Gulch Disaster,” 108, where sensemaking is described as ‘contextual rationality’, and Weick et al., “Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking,” 419, where sensemaking implies that ‘constraints are partly of one’s own making and not simply objects to which one reacts’.

52. Weick, “Enacted Sensemaking in Crisis Situations,” 2245.

53. Boje,“Narrative Methods,” 45.

54. Rowlinson et al., “Research Strategies for Organizational History,” 253.

55. White, “The Question of Narrative in Contemporary Historical Theory,” 14; Barthes, “The Discourse of History,” 16- 17, Barthes, “Mythologies,” 148–9.

56. Nietzsche, Will to Power, KGW VIII I, 138, cited in Barthes, “The Discourse of History,” 15; Geertz, “Interpretation of Cultures,” 49.

57. Somers, “The Narrative Constitution of Identity,” 620.

58. Bruner, “Acts of Meaning,” 83.

59. Gergen et al., “Dialogue,” 49.

60. Hosking and Hjorth, “Relational Constructionism and Entrepreneurship,” 263.

61. Bruner, “Acts of Meaning,” 21.

62. Somers, “The Narrative Constitution Of Identity,” 617.

63. Lyotard, “The Postmodern Condition”.

64. Alter, “The Art of Biblical Narrative”.

65. Eco, “Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages,” 25; Young, “The Drama of the Medieval Church”; Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, vol. 1, and White, “The Question of Narrative in Contemporary Historical Theory”; Boje, “Storytelling Organizations,” 2, Gabriel, “Storytelling in Organizations,” 21; and Czarniawska, “A Theory of Organizing”.

66. Mordhorst, “From Counterfactural History,” 10.

67. Bruner, Acts of Meaning, 150; Gubrium and Holstein, “Analyzing Narrative Reality,” 201; Jovchelovitch, “Narrative, Memory and Social Representations”.

68. Boje, ”Storytelling Organizations,” 13.

69. Ginzburg, “The Cheese and the Worms”; Levi, “On Microhistory”.

70. Gabriel, “Storytelling in Organizations,” 26.

71. Musacchio Adoriso, ”Organizational Remembering,” 468.

72. Gabriel, “Storytelling Organizations,” 21.

73. Ankersmit, “Historical Representation,” 2008.

74. Riessman, “Narrative Methods,” 2.1.

75. Guba and Lincoln, “Competing Paradigms,” 115.

76. Guba and Lincoln, “Paradigmatic Controversies,” 114.

77. Bruner, “Acts of Meaning,” 108.

78. The classical narrative is related by drawing on sources that are publically available, such as the website of Copenhagen Phil, Tivoli A/S, literature, surveys, notes from observations and communication with Uffe Savery, and published records from the establishment of the orchestra The few remaining archival sources available at the Royal Library Copenhagen proved irrelevant to the purpose of this article As the purpose of the classical narrative is not to alter, nor propose alternatives to the canonical narrative, no efforts have been made to search for alternative records To further illustrate my point, I have retrospectively imposed a series of BME-structures on the records

79. Godtfred Skjerne, “H.C. Lumbye og hans Samtid” (H.C. Lumbye and his Contemporaries). Thanks to its numerous and meticulous references to archival sources from the foundation of Tivoli, it is considered a primary entry into the history of Tivoli, as most archival sources burned down during the Schallburgtage attacts in WW2. The few remaining archival sources are available at the Royal Library Copenhagen.

80. “Om Kulturministeriets oprettelse”.

81. Elbæk, “Marshall Plan”.

82. “FIM Survey”.

83. “Special Eurobarometer 399”.

84. The alternative narrative is related by drawing on sources that are publically available such as YouTube, newspaper websites, extensive fieldnotes and personal communication with Uffe Savery, musicians and administrative staff at the orchestra I have, as accounted for elsewhere, actively participated in the creation of the narrative, both by involving my own reflections, but also in interaction with the other narrators I have, as Mordhorst’s “Arla and Danish National Identity,” 119, points out, let my research question transform signs and traces from the past into sources

85. The following four utterances are selected from the comments to the flashmob uploaded to YouTube (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrEk06XXaAw) without any specific chronological order or reference to authors of whom only some reveal their (possibly) true identity as is common in social media.

86. Cronbach cited in Bruner, “Acts of Meaning,” 108.

87. Potter and Wetherell, “Discourse and Social Psychology,” 146.

88. Weick et al., “Organizing,” 409; Bruner, Acts of Meaning, 43; Weick, “Sensemaking,” 128; Ankersmit, “Historical Representation,” 208.

89. Weick et al., “Organizing,” 411; Bennis and Nanus, “Leaders”, Mintzberg, “The Manager’s Job”, Drucker, “The New Society of Organizations”.

90. Drath et al., “Direction, Alignment, Commitment”.

91. Weick, “Organizing,” 411.

92. See, e.g. classical contributions such as Bass, “Leader and Performance” and Conger, “The Charismatic Leader”.

93. Mordhorst, “Arla and Danish National Identity,” 119, suggests that as the main task of history, in that oblivion is created by forefronting some events at the expense of others, thereby leaving these ‘to a shady graveyard’.

94. Los Angeles Times, May 16, 2012, online version.

95. Gabriel, “Storytelling in Organizations,” 5.

96. Hansen, “From Finance Capitalism to Financialization”.

97. Boje, “Storytelling Organizations,” 1, 13.

98. Ankersmit, “Historical Representation,” 206.

99. Weick, “Enacted Sensemaking,” 313.

100. E.g. “Oslo Call”, Schønwandt, Muti, “Resignation”.

101. Gabriel, “Storytelling in Organizations,” 5; Boje, “Storytelling Organizations,” 13.

102. Gergen, “An Invitation to Social Construction,” 149.

103. Czarniawska, “A Theory of Organizing,” 33; Weick, “Leadership as the Legitimation of Doubt,” 264.

104. McNamee and Gergen, “Relational Responsibility Resources for Sustainable Dialogue,” 10.

105. Drath, “The Deep Blue Sea,” 124.

106. Weick, “Leadership as the Legitimation of Doubt,” 264; Perlman, “Interview”.

107. Popp and Holt, “Entrepreneurship and Being”, argue that imposing the narrative structure offered by classical conceptualisations of entrepreneurship does account well for how events were perceived through the eyes of the involved Mr and Mrs Shaw.

108. Barthes and Duisit, “An Introduction”, 237.

109. Brown and Thompson, “A Narrative Approach,” 1145.

110. Weick, “Leadership as the Legitimation of Doubt,” 267.

111. Rowlinson et al., “Research Strategies for Organizational History,” 252; Sewell, “Logics of History”.

112. Laird, “How Business Historians Can Save the World”.

113. Kroeze and Keulen, “Leading a Multinational is History in Practice:”.

114. Barry, “Telling Changes”.

115. Brecht, Life of Galileo, Scene 12, 115.

116. Grint, The Arts of Leadership, 244.

117. Keulen and Kroeze, “Understanding Management Gurus and Historical Narratives,”171.

118. Sasaki and Sone, “Cultural Approach”; Vaara et al., “Narratives as Sources of Stability and Change”; Holt, “Reimagining Business History”; Boje, “Reflections:”; Hansen, “Business History; Hosking, “Moving Relationality”; Fairhurst, “Discursive Approaches to leadership”; Gubrium and Holstein, “Analyzing Narrative Reality,” 227.

119. Marsico, “Jerome S. Bruner beyond 100,” 14.