Dialogic Change and the Practice of Inclusive Leadership

Abstract

Structured Abstract:Purpose: This chapter explored theories related to inclusive leadership, and the application of inclusion and collaboration principles in a master's-level leadership program.Design/Approach: We reviewed the concept of inclusive leadership, its theoretical grounding in social construction, and the role of collaboration and dialogue in learning, creativity, and what has been called, "dialogic change" in creating an inclusive culture. The application of four principles -leadership as engagement, engaged scholarship, orientation to possibility, and learning as transformation -have been critical to the practices of the authors as leadership educators and in teaching leadership.Findings: Inclusive leadership practices can have a dramatic positive impact on employee engagement, organizational culture and, ultimately, on organizational effectiveness. Moreover, inclusive leaders can effectively navigate through a context of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, through engaging those affected by these issues.Social Implications: Universities play a key role in making the world a better place by educating future leaders to work effectively and respectfully with others by fostering creative problem solving. When faculty and staff embrace inclusive leadership principles in their work together, they generate creativity, and improve their effectiveness. As leadership educators, we not only model inclusive leadership principles; we use them as a framework for our teaching.Originality/Value of paper: Our leadership journey from theory to practice is of interest to leadership educators, scholars, and practitioners seeking to better understand and apply the concept of inclusive leadership in their particular settings. While our setting is Canadian, we argue the theoretical discussion and principles have broader application.Keywords: Inclusion; post-heroic leadership; social construction; dialogic change; leadership education; generative metaphor. (Hamilton, Márquez, & Agger-Gupta, 2013 Classification: Conceptual paper [Maximum is 250 words in total (ours is 250 words). Please provide up to six keywords]

“That’s your right as a human isn’t it?” The emergence and development of leading as a socially-just practice in early childhood education

“…Another emergent method, the dialogic café, was conducted with groups of participants on two sites. The dialogic café is a type of free-form focus group where participants direct the conversation (Agger-Gupta & Harris, 2017). After an initial provocation on leadership, participants posed questions of interest and then dialogued to create new ideas.…”

Leading change and Plato

“…It is no coincidence that Platonic philosophy is extensively deployed in management literature (Sower and Fair, 2005; Segal and Bruce, 2017; Shaw, 2020), covering all areas, such as ethics (Henderson et al , 2009; Giovanola and Fermani, 2012; Harper, 2021), human resource management (Graham, 2010; Short, 2010; Langbert, 2017), innovation (Bordum, 2010; Simmons and Sower, 2012; Pavie, 2014), leadership (Humphreys and Einstein, 2003; Taormina, 2008; Bauman, 2018) and change management (Gustavsson, 2001; Carr, 2002; Chung, 2012). In current theories of leading change aspects of Plato’s philosophy are discussed, not strictly through its “classical” interpretation, but liberated from the political and administrative necessity of his time (Marshak, 2004; Skordoulis and Dawson, 2007; Aitken and Higgs, 2010; Maccoby, 2015; Reams, 2016; Agger-Gupta and Harris, 2017; Karabadse and Karabadse, 2018; Peltonen, 2019). Combining Plato's stochasticity with contemporary change leadership theory leads to the emergence of critical parameters, as well as the enrichment of their interpretation, towards a successful change initiative.…”