Mats Alvesson

Professor

A Theory of Leadership Meta-Talk and the Talking-Doing Gap

Författare

Thomas Fischer
Mats Alvesson

Summary, in English

We identify managers' meta-level talk about the positive purpose, meaning, and significance of their actions as an overlooked type of leadership behaviour and call it leadership meta-talk. We outline why leadership meta-talk is not necessarily truthful or deceptive, but selective and loosely coupled with leadership practice. We discuss varieties of leadership meta-talk, namely aspirational, sub-texting, and sensemaking meta-talk, as well as principled, situational, formulaic, and casual meta-talk. We show how all varieties of leadership meta-talk draw people's attention to positive aspects of leadership practice and provide positive interpretations of it. Thus, leadership meta-talk can positively influence attributions of leadership and portray workplaces as overly harmonious and well-ordered, masking power imbalances and tensions and creating a quantitative and qualitative talking-doing gap. We argue that these talking-doing gaps are systemic rather than pathological features of the contemporary workplace because overly positive leadership meta-talk responds to systemic pressures and opportunities for managers and provides egocentric, psycho-relational, and public-image benefits. In contrast, leadership practice that lives up to leadership meta-talk is more costly, difficult, and time-consuming than commonly assumed. Our theory reconciles attributional, behavioural, and romancing views of leadership, and offers new insights into key organizational and societal challenges, including managing healthy workplace expectations.

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