Leadership behaviour in the arts : understanding the multiple roles of senior management in nonprofit arts and cultural organisations

Labaronne, Leticia; Müller, Andrea

Publication type:	Conference paper
Type of review:	No review
Title:	Leadership behaviour in the arts : understanding the multiple roles of senior management in nonprofit arts and cultural organisations
Authors:	Labaronne, Leticia Müller, Andrea
et. al:	No
Conference details:	22nd EURAM Annual Conference, Winterthur, Switzerland, 15-17 June 2022
Issue Date:	2022
Language:	English
Subjects:	Mintzberg; Arts and cultural organisations; Leadership behaviour
Subject (DDC):	306: Culture 658.4: Executive Management
Abstract:	In today’s world, characterised by growing complexity, dynamic environments, economic uncertainty, and information overload, senior managers of organisations find themselves caught between multiple demands and changing expectations. The research-driven evolution of leadership models has broadened their scope from individual into organisational and collective models, and scholars strive to integrate various leadership elements to consider an organisation’s complex, interactive, and dynamic environment. What has been somewhat neglected is the perspective of the leaders themselves, as they address demands and enact the expectations placed on them within their role. This continues to be the case in the arts and cultural sector, even though it has recently gained scholarly attention as a fruitful field for uncovering new insights into organisational dynamics, particular as an “extreme case of leadership”. The present study explores how senior management in nonprofit arts and cultural organisations understand and perform their roles. Because most empirical work on leadership roles makes reference to Mintzberg’s seminal work, which describes managerial work as consisting of ten roles, classified into interpersonal, informational and decisional categories, we draw on his work to map out the roles that today leaders of arts and cultural organisations assume for which we conduct an explorative qualitative study. Our findings suggest that leaders in arts and cultural organisations mostly assume roles related to interpersonal exchange and decision-making functions, whereas informational roles were less observed. In addition to Mintzberg’s traditional roles, our findings show the presence of self-management tasks – in the sense of dealing with stress and critically reflecting on one’s personal resources – which we categorise as “intrapersonal roles”. This category points to a new range of leadership behaviour not outlined by Mintzberg. We, therefore, propose a possible extension of Mintzberg’s framework to better reflect today’s managerial work in arts and cultural organisations. Our study thus contributes to the body of knowledge on leadership behaviour in the nonprofit and arts management literature, as well as to leadership research, by offering a contemporary perspective on the understanding of managerial roles, particularly those in creative, dynamic, and innovative organisations, and will also help enable leaders to engage with their roles and expectations in a more reflective manner.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/28281
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	Licence according to publishing contract
Departement:	School of Management and Law
Organisational Unit:	Center for Arts Management (ZKM)
Appears in collections:	Publikationen School of Management and Law

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Labaronne, L., & Müller, A. (2022). Leadership behaviour in the arts : understanding the multiple roles of senior management in nonprofit arts and cultural organisations. 22nd EURAM Annual Conference, Winterthur, Switzerland, 15-17 June 2022.

Labaronne, L. and Müller, A. (2022) ‘Leadership behaviour in the arts : understanding the multiple roles of senior management in nonprofit arts and cultural organisations’, in 22nd EURAM Annual Conference, Winterthur, Switzerland, 15-17 June 2022.

L. Labaronne and A. Müller, “Leadership behaviour in the arts : understanding the multiple roles of senior management in nonprofit arts and cultural organisations,” in 22nd EURAM Annual Conference, Winterthur, Switzerland, 15-17 June 2022, 2022.

LABARONNE, Leticia und Andrea MÜLLER, 2022. Leadership behaviour in the arts : understanding the multiple roles of senior management in nonprofit arts and cultural organisations. In: 22nd EURAM Annual Conference, Winterthur, Switzerland, 15-17 June 2022. Conference paper. 2022

Labaronne, Leticia, and Andrea Müller. 2022. “Leadership Behaviour in the Arts : Understanding the Multiple Roles of Senior Management in Nonprofit Arts and Cultural Organisations.” Conference paper. In 22nd EURAM Annual Conference, Winterthur, Switzerland, 15-17 June 2022.

Labaronne, Leticia, and Andrea Müller. “Leadership Behaviour in the Arts : Understanding the Multiple Roles of Senior Management in Nonprofit Arts and Cultural Organisations.” 22nd EURAM Annual Conference, Winterthur, Switzerland, 15-17 June 2022, 2022.