This Time from Africa: Developing a Relational Approach to Values-Driven Leadership

P�rezts, Mar; Russon, Jo-Anna; Painter, Mollie

Abstract

The importance of relationality in ethical leadership has been the focus of recent attention in business ethics scholarship. However, this relational component has not been sufficiently theorized from different philosophical perspectives, allowing specific Western philosophical conceptions to dominate the leadership development literature. This paper offers a theoretical analysis of the relational ontology that informs various conceptualizations of selfhood from both African and Western philosophical traditions and unpacks its implications for values-driven leadership. We aim to broaden Western conceptions of leadership development by drawing on 20th century European philosophy’s insights on relationality, but more importantly, to show how African philosophical traditions precede this literature in its insistence on a relational ontology of the self. To illustrate our theoretical argument, we reflect on an executive education course called Values-driven Leadership into Action (VDLA), which ran in South Africa, Kenya, and Egypt in 2016, 2017, and 2018.
We highlight an African inspired employment of relationality through its use of the ME-WE-WORLD framework, articulating its theoretical assumptions with embodied experiential learning.

Citation

Pérezts, M., Russon, J.-A., & Painter, M. (2020). This Time from Africa: Developing a Relational Approach to Values-Driven Leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 161(4), 731–748. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04343-0

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 30, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Nov 15, 2019
• Publication Date: 2020-02
• Deposit Date: Nov 27, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 27, 2019
• Journal: Journal of Business Ethics
• Print ISSN: 0167-4544
• Electronic ISSN: 1573-0697
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 161
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 731–748
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04343-0
• Keywords: Economics and Econometrics; General Business, Management and Accounting; Business and International Management; Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous); Law
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3322253
• Additional Information: Received: 3 September 2018; Accepted: 30 October 2019; First Online: 15 November 2019; : ; : There are no conflicts of interest to report.; : All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.; : Participants on VDLA programs were informed of potential research outputs and were guaranteed anonymity. All individuals involved in dream-boards signed a consent statement for the REAL-Network which covers anonymized research outputs.
• Contract Date: Nov 27, 2019