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Communication is inextricably linked to the enactment of leadership, as Barge and Hirokawa (1989, p. 172) emphasize: “leadership occurs through the process of interaction and communication.” During the past decade, communication lenses to the study of leadership have emerged, in which researchers focus on the socially co-constructed, relational, and discursive aspects of leadership (Fairhurst and Connaughton, 2014; Kramer and Crespy, 2011; Fairhurst, 2007). Departing from research traditions focussing on traits, styles or charisma of individual leaders, leadership is considered a relational phenomenon, co-constructed in the social interactions among people acting in context (Fairhurst and Uhl-Bien, 2012). It is constructed in the organizational and macro-social contexts in which it occurs, and shaped by structures, cultures, and processes as well as individual actors (Barge and Fairhurst, 2008; Fairhurst and Grant, 2010; Johansson, 2003).
Consequently, diverse cultural and contextual settings are relevant to studies of leadership in an increasingly globalized world, and researchers have recently voiced the need to illustrate how leadership is discursively constituted in local (micro-) interactions connected to (macro-) societal discourse (Hall, 2011; Konja et al., 2014). A recent literature review suggested focussing on leadership as a diverse global communication phenomenon as well as on its positive aspects (Fairhurst and Connaughton, 2014). Scholars also have identified a need for research on empowering leadership communication and co-workers’ communication (Heide and Simonsson, 2011; Ruck and Welch, 2012; Welch, 2011).
Heeding these calls, we studied a concept of growing popularity in Sweden: “communicative leadership,” which is employed by both private and public organizations to highlight the importance of communication to leadership and relate it to organizational performance through involving and empowering co-workers (Nordblom and Hamrefors, 2007).
Recently, a communicative leader was defined as: “one who engages employees in dialogue, actively shares and seeks feedback, practices participative decision making, and is perceived as open and involved” (Johansson et al., 2014). Theoretically, this research proposes that communicative leadership comprises a set of communicative principles and practices, which could enact leader/co-worker relationships and reflect core values in the Swedish context, particularly related to participation and democracy (Lämsä, 2010; Schramm-Nielsen et al., 2004). Moreover, Johansson et al. (2014) suggest the theoretical framework might contribute to developing leaders’ communication competence. So far, empirical studies of how organizational actors (leaders...