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The Masculinisation of Ethical Leadership Dis/embodiment

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  • Helena Liu

    (Swinburne University of Technology)

Abstract

This article argues that while ethical leadership in mainstream theorising is assumed to be a cognitive exercise, leaders’ bodies in fact play a significant role in the social construction of ethical leadership. Their bodies (both their exposure and concealment) become particularly potent when leaders are depicted via the interplay between visual and verbal modes in the media. In order to extend current understandings of ethical leadership, this study employs a discourse analytic approach to examine how visual and verbal devices convey ethical leadership for two of Australia’s major bank chief executive officers—John Stewart and Ralph Norris—before and during the global financial crisis. Based on the analysis, this article demonstrates that ethical leadership is constructed through the confluence of elite and working class masculinities that is multimodally embodied and disembodied. The article suggests that what it means to be an ethical leader is invariably informed by class-based patriarchal norms that can serve to reinforce the masculinisation of ethics.

Suggested Citation

  • Helena Liu, 2017. "The Masculinisation of Ethical Leadership Dis/embodiment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 263-278, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:144:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-015-2831-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2831-x
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    2. Marian Iszatt-White & Andrea Whittle & Gyuzel Gadelshina & Frank Mueller, 2019. "The ‘Corbyn Phenomenon’: Media Representations of Authentic Leadership and the Discourse of Ethics Versus Effectiveness," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 535-549, October.

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