Call for Papers

Despite calls to mark this the ‘decade of action’ (UN, 2021) and the priority of responsible leadership to take centre stage (WEF, 2021), the systems change to address grand challenges of the Anthropocene are still lagging behind the intentions and awareness of the need for change. Despite calls for (Moldoveanu & Narayanda, 2022) and active efforts to advance a Responsible Management Learning agenda (Laasch et al., 2020) and frameworks of curriculum development that promote responsibility, sustainability and ethics (Laasch et al., 2023), the development of leaders and leadership fails to demonstrate marked improvements in action (Mintzberg, 2015) which Antonacopoulou (2010) explains ought to be the essence of impact (IMProving ACTion) and the way it is measured. When creative solutions to current problems are needed, the question arises as to how leadership and leadership development can help people and organizations to flourish.
 
Human flourishing is a central concept in Aristotle’s notion of Eudaimonia and has underpinned much of the emerging field of positive psychology and debates on happiness and wellbeing (van der Weele, 2017). It is receiving increasing attention promoting both the closer interdisciplinary examination of the concept (e.g., Las Heras et al., 2023), its practical application in addressing current economic models and measures of prosperity (e.g., Neill & Nevin, 2022). Flourishing is becoming a global ‘rule’ (e.g., ESG standards) and is also anticipated to mark the makings of the 5^th Industrial Revolution prompting in some cases, policy makers to embrace Global Flourishing Goals (Karthikeya et al., 2022) as a new agenda that compliments United Nation Sustainable Development Goals.
 
However, to foster flourishing a new learning agenda is called for. The prospect that education itself may be responsible for such limited progress is alarming (Schinkel, 2022), especially given leadership development is heralded as central to social change necessary for sustainable development given human action is at the epicentre of the ecological crisis. Learning Leadership reflects a healthy balance of diachronic and synchronic elements in terms of learning practices ranging from innovations in experimental approaches (Birkenshaw & Gudka, 2022); art-based (Antonacopoulou & Taylor 2019a; 2019b); coaching and mindfulness (Fay, 2023); responsibility and conscience (Miska & Mendenhall, 2018) alongside established methods like action learning (Revans, 1982); collaborative and appreciative inquiry (Shani et al., 2022) to name but a few.
 
These learning practices correspond with emerging conceptions of leadership as post-heroic (Collinson et al., 2019; Schweiger et al. 2019) practice-based (Raelin, 2020) relational (Uhl-Bien & Ospina, 2012) and relationist (Wolfram Cox & Hassard, 2018). It is now timely to review, renew and update approaches to the nurturing, cultivation and activation of leaders, leadership and the development of modes of leading for creative system change. We seek to pave the next chapter in advancing leadership and bring together the community of scholars that are ‘leading on leadership studies’ through an ‘epikairotic’ orientation, which can amplify and help us to develop creative ways in which learning leadership is supported.
 
Learning leadership as originally conceptualised promotes the intimate interrelationship between learning and leading as a force for living a good life in the pursuit of excellence thus, focusing on learning of leadership, as opposed to learning about leadership (Antonacopoulou & Bento, 2003; 2016). This offers both a mode of leadership as well as, an approach towards developing leadership, because it promotes practising learning and leading to discover the power of loving what you do and doing what you do with love (Antonacopoulou & Bento, 2010). Such references to love invite greater responsibility for the choices made, judgments formed and actions taken. Beyond exemplifying the role of virtue, character and conscience as guiding principles of learning leadership, the impact of learning and the impact of leadership in energizing the pursuit of the common good is attended to.
 
Such framing also explains why previous leadership development practices (e.g., competence and character-based) may be deemed as progressively dogmatic and inappropriate to dealing with social complexity (Edwards et al., 2024). The kairotic (Antonacopoulou, 2014) indications of the emergence of the 5^th Industrial Revolution focusing on human flourishing (Antonacopoulou, 2024), makes it all the more critical to creatively provoke and promote innovations in learning leadership, research and practice to realize the impact of learning and leadership in shaping a humanistic world.
 
If we are to mobilise the systems change necessary, we need to redesign the system of educating and learning of leadership, building on the notable advancements in promoting leadership that cultivates simultaneously the individual alongside the collective. Leadership development needs to retain and develop criticality, reflexivity, phronesis and responsibility as essential dimensions because they foster approaches to leadership learning and development with a focus on advancing humanity and what being and becoming human means (Antonacopoulou et al., 2024).
 
However, it also needs to be extended to amplify the creativity of leaders and their continuous learning and the mark of their leadership as they rise to the occasion not only during crises, but in everyday action (Antonacopoulou & Bento, 2018). We therefore need to explore the impact of different approaches to leadership development (Güttel & Kleinhanns-Rollé, 2023; Güttel et al., 2023) and learning leadership on human flourishing to ultimately enable thriving organizations beyond traditional conceptions of economic and societal prosperity.
 
This is why we ask:

• How can learning leadership foster flourishing?

• What innovations and new creative ways of learning leadership can we cocreate?

• How can they encourage and develop responsible, sustainable and sustainability leadership practices and approaches?

• How does leadership development and learning impact organizational creativity, sustainability, change and flourishing?

 
This sub-theme therefore invites us to explore and expand creative learning leadership for human flourishing approaches and enlightened organizational action on such issues as purpose, stakeholder value and the frailties and shortcomings of humans that threaten our interpersonal and collective well-being (Robinson & Kerr, 2009) as we demonstrate leadership in everyday life. In so doing, we encourage papers which critically reflect on examples of doing learning leadership and leadership development differently and which consider what conceptual and practical lessons such experiences and interventions can bring.
 
This focus extends the Learning Leadership for Flourishing agenda that we have already successfully launched in a range of previous fora (e.g., international symposia – Cyprus 2024, and professional development workshops at the Academy of Management 2023, 2024). The sub-theme contributes to the wider momentum on ‘Global Flourishing Goals’ that international communities (e.g., UNPRME, Humanistic Leadership Academy, USA, and the International Humanistic Management Association; the Leadership for Flourishing, Oxford) pursue. Hence, this sub-theme fosters community building in supporting and showcasing innovations in leadership studies and new approaches to leader and leadership development. A series of edited volumes and special issues are in progress and submissions to this sub-theme will be considered and invited to these research outcomes to amplify the collective impact of scholarship and pedagogy in this field.
 
We invite papers which may speak to, but are not restricted to the following themes/questions:

• The role and relevance of traditional leadership approaches in developing leadership for human flourishing.

• What (new) types of leadership do we need to address current global challenges and foster human flourishing?

• Reframings of Learning Leadership.

• Tensions and extensions between learning and leadership creative processes and practices.

• Power dynamics in leadership, leading and learning and implications for developing Learning Leadership.

• Critiques of existing leadership development research and practice.

• What might a leadership development for (responsible/sustainable) action look like?

• The possibilities and limitations to responsible/sustainable leadership development.

• Relationships between flourishing, creativity and action in leadership development.

References

• Antonacopoulou, E. 2010. Making the Business School More 'Critical': Reflexive Critique Based on Phronesis as a Foundation for Impact. British Journal of Management, 21: 6-25.

• Antonacopoulou, E.P. 2014. The Experience of Learning in Space and Time. Prometheus. 32(1): 83–91
• Antonacopoulou, E.P. 2024. A New Man-Agement Manifesto: An Invitation. The Market. Forthcoming
• Antonacopoulou, E.P. and Bento R. 2003. Methods of ‘Learning Leadership’: Taught and Experiential, in J. Storey Current Issues in Leadership and Management Development, 81-102, Oxford: Blackwell
• Antonacopoulou, E.P. and Bento, R. 2010. Learning Leadership in Practice. In J. Storey (ed) Leadership in Organizations: Current Issues and Key Trends, 81-102. 2^nd Edition, London: Routledge.
• Antonacopoulou, E.P. and Bento, R. 2016. Learning Leadership: A Call to Beauty. In J. Storey (ed) Leadership in Organizations: Current Issues and Key Trends. 3^rd Edition, Chapter 5. London: Routledge
• Antonacopoulou, E.P. and Bento, R. 2018. From Laurels to Learning: Leadership with Virtue, Journal of Management Development, Special Issue. 37(8): 624-633
• Antonacopoulou, E.P., Neill, E. and Nevin, A.S. 2024. Competing for Flourishing: Responsible Management and Relational Leadership Revisited. In J. Richie-Dunham, K. Granville-Chapman, M. Lee (Eds). Leadership for Flourishing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Antonacopoulou, E.P. and Taylor, S. 2019a. Sensuous Learning for Practical Judgment in Professional Practice: Volume 1: Arts-based Methods. London: Palgrave Macmillan
• Antonacopoulou, E.P. and Taylor, S. 2019b. Sensuous Learning for Practical Judgment in Professional Practice: Volume 2: Arts-based Interventions. London: Palgrave Macmillan
• Birkinshaw, J. and Gudka, M. 2022. Leadership development through experimentation: a theoretical framework and empirical test. Journal of Management Development, 41 (2): 70-93
• Collinson, D., Smolović Jones, O., Grint, K. 2018. ‘No More Heroes’: Critical perspectives on leadership romanticism. Organization Studies 39(11): 1625–1647
• Edwards, G., Antonacopoulou, E.P., Sklavenyti, C., Moldjord, C., Stokkeland, C. and Hawkins, B., 2024. Voices from the Village: A Multi-voiced Relational Perspective of Character Development in Leadership Learning. Management Learning (forthcoming)
• Güttel, W.H. and Kleinhanns-Rollé, A. 2023. Orchestrating leadership value chains: Execution, engagement & enhancement. In W.H. Güttel (Ed.) Successful in turbulent times. Leadership, Change Management & Ambidexterity. (79-104) Baden-Baden
• Güttel, W. H., Güttel, C., Kleinhanns-Rollé, A., and Voglmayr, R. 2023. Scientific leadership development: Enhancement, methods & impact. In W.H. Güttel, (Ed.) Successful in turbulent times. Leadership, Change Management & Ambidexterity. (381-399) Baden-Baden
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• Laasch, O., Moosmayer, D. and Antonacopoulou, E.P. 2023. A Competence Framework and Pedagogy for Responsible Management: Interweaving Ethics, Responsibility, and Sustainability Journal of Business Ethics DOI: 10.1007/s10551-022-05261-4
• Laasch. O., Moosmayer, D.C., Antonacopoulou, E.P. and Schaltegger, S. 2020. Constellations of Transdisciplinary Practices: A Map and Research Agenda for the Responsible Management Learning Field. Journal of Business Ethics. Special issue – Responsible Management Learning. 162(4): 735-757
• Las Heras, M., Grau Grau M. and Rofcanin, Y. (Eds) 2023. Human Flourishing: A Multidisciplinary Perspective on Neuroscience, Health, Organizations and Arts. Springer, Switzerland.
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• Moldoveanu, M.C. and Narayanda, D 2022. The Future of Executive Development. Stanford University Press: Stanford
• Neill, E. and Nevin, A.S. 2022. Flourishing in Canada: How to Get the Good Life. Canada, The Flourishing Institute.
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• Robinson, S.K. and Kerr, R. (2009) 'The symbolic violence of leadership: a critical hermeneutic study of leadership and succession in a British organization in the post-Soviet context' Human Relations, 62(6): 875-903.
• Schinkel, A. 2022. Education in the Anthropocene: A Sober Assessment. In J. B. Metzler (Ed) Creating Green Citizens (pp. 73-96) Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg.
• Schweiger, S., Müller, B., & Güttel, W. H. 2020. Barriers to leadership development: Why is it so difficult to abandon the hero?. Leadership 16(4), 411-433.
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• United Nations (UN) 2021. Decade of Action - United Nations Sustainable Development (un.org)
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• Wolfram Cox, J. & Hassard, J. 2018. From relational to relationist leadership in critical management education: recasting leadership work after the practice turn, Academy of Management Learning and Education, 17(4): 532–556
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