A Leadership Development Kōan: Vulnerability as Change Capacity. (December 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Elgayeva, Ekaterina
• Is Part Of: Journal of applied behavioral science. Volume 57:Number 4(2021)
• Page Start: 484
• Page End: 489
• Publication Date: 2021-12
• Subjects: leadership -- social exchanges -- emotions -- sensemaking/sensegiving -- change management -- knowledge management -- social networks -- network analysis -- qualitative research -- management education; Social sciences -- Periodicals; 300.5
• DOI: 10.1177/00218863211046271
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-8863

Abstract

How are organizations embracing the emotional complexity of the emerging organizational landscape? More specifically, how do leaders develop the capacity necessary to infuse the organization's emotional circuitry with renewed energy at a time of transformation? In this essay, I posit that vulnerability can be the threshold for change capacity in institutional work, fortifying leaders' developmental trajectories and transforming organizing and organizations. While paradoxical, the regenerative nature of vulnerability yields change capacity requisite of navigating the emotional complexity leaders encounter on their developmental journeys.