We
are pleased to send you below a call for papers for a conference to be
held at the University of Paris Nanterre on April 21st, 2023.
Best regards,
Elvis Buckwalter and Sherry Robinson
CALL FOR PAPERS
A NEW ERA OF LEADERSHIP: DIGITAL DISCOURSE, CULTURE(S) AND COMMUNICATION
Conference
Université Paris-Nanterre (France)
21 April 2023
Deadline for submission: March 6th, 2023
The
2020s have ushered in a new era of what it means to be a leader.
Compounded by the turmoil brought on by both the COVID-19 pandemic as
well as an increasingly fragile geopolitical climate, leaders are now
faced with having to adapt to a new age of cultural discourse based on
digital communication. The inextricable association between leadership
and communication (de Vries, R. E., Bakker-Pieper, A., & Oostenveld,
W. 2010) has expanded to include computer mediation as a prerequisite
for efficient collaborations to take place. No longer are face-to-face
(FTF) social interactions sufficient – or even necessary – in themselves
to ensure goals are being met; increasingly, leaders are relying on
computer-mediated communication (CMC) (Wang, Y., & Wang, Y. 2022) to
achieve organizational objectives.
From the individual
entrepreneur working in a loose network of external partners to the CEO
at the helm of a highly integrated and multi-faceted organization, the
generalization of computer-mediated communication (eg. video
conferencing, webinars, artificial intelligence, social media and
messaging, etc.) has to a considerable degree empowered leaders and
their team members in their transition to this new generation of
e-leadership. Leaders with technological savvy clearly have an edge over
those traditional leaders who do not: increased professional well-being
(Zeike, S., Bradbury, K., Lindert, L., & Pfaff, H. 2019), greater
ability to motivate team members (Aldawood, H., Alhejaili, A., Alabadi,
M., Alharbi, O., & Skinner, G. 2019) and enhanced intercultural
skills are among the many advantages afforded to these leaders.
Veering
towards a changing culture of digital communication, leaders have had
to adopt different strategies and take into account new paradigms of
cultural discourse. To this end, one is compelled to consider the
possibility of an “epistemic” shift described by Michel Foucault (1972)
brought on by an “extreme context” (Musca, G., Mellet, C., Rouleau, L.,
Simoni, G., Sitri, F., & De Vogüé, S. 2019) or “cataclysmic event”
(Bardi 2017) such as the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on digital
discourse, culture and communication. This new virtual context has
altered how time and space are perceived by leaders and their teams.
“Virtual
leaders” at the center of these “virtual teams” have not only been more
successful in enduring this transition out of necessity, but they have
also become instrumental in defining key success factors for future
collaborations (Swart, K., Bond-Barnard, T., & Chugh, R. 2022). This
new era has even propelled individuals into key leadership roles not
because of their experience in managing teams, but rather because of
their digital savvy and presence on social media platforms. (Rullo, L.,
& Nunziata, F. 2021).
This one-day conference seeks to
explore leaders’ experience of the post-pandemic era and stimulate
research into what the cultural and discursive implications of this new
era will be for future leaders. The conference aims to gather
researchers and professionals from an array of disciplines (cultural
studies, management science, entrepreneurial studies, intercultural
studies, discourse analysis...) in a dynamic, interactive context to
discuss about the cultural shift currently underway as a result of the
pandemic, and its impact on a new discursive constructs and
communicational strategies.
Some themes to be explored:
- The role of English as a lingua franca (ELF) among leaders in intercultural scenarios ;
- Emerging digital culture(s) and its impact on communicative strategies among leaders ;
- Linguistic and discursive analyses of specific discourse practices which inform “the discourse of leadership” ;
- Effects of cataclysmic events and extreme contexts on cultural discourse and communication ;
- Shifts in perception of time and space in digital communication scenarios (synchronous, k-synchronous, asynchronous) ;
- International virtual exchange (IVE) in professional and educational contexts ;
- The “digital divide” and its impact on communication strategies among leaders and entrepreneurs.
Keynote speakers:
Sherry Robinson, Professor of Business, Entrepreneurial Studies, Penn State University, United States
