PhD thesis: Ann Starbæk Bager: Theorising and analysing plurivocality and dialogue in organizational and leadership development practices

In this thesis, Ann Bager explores, analyses and discusses plurivocal meaning-making practices in a dialogue- and research-based leadership forum hosted in university settings. The purpose of the study is to scrutinize and challenge the taken-for-grantedness of dialogic organizational development practices.

In this thesis, I explore, analyse and discuss plurivocal meaning-making practices in a dialogue- and research-based leadership forum hosted in university settings, which I helped initiate and hold in the spring and autumn 2012. The purpose of the study is to scrutinize and challenge the taken-for-grantedness of dialogic organizational development practices. Dialogue has become a mainstream (organizational) discourse and technique within development practices throughout society and is often naturally seen as a positive phenomenon with attached ideals of emancipation and involvement. Nevertheless, scholars clarify how mainstream dialogic development practices rarely follow suit with a deep theorization of the concept dialogue; likewise, (organizational) dialogic practices are not commonly placed under scrutiny, which means that we know little about the consequences of such. The present research offers an in-depth theorization of dialogue through the lens of Bakhtinian dialogicality, accompanied by an analysis of in situ dialogic practicing and identity work in the leadership forum. In contrast to traditional dialogue analysis, I study dialogue as an embodied place-bound activity.

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