White Knights: Leadership as the heroicisation of whiteness

Liu, H; Baker, C

White Knights: Leadership as the heroicisation of whiteness

Liu, H

Baker, C

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Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Leadership, 2016, 12 (4), pp. 420 - 448
Issue Date:: 2016-09-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Liu, H https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4211-0932	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Baker, C	en_US
dc.date.issued	2016-09-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Leadership, 2016, 12 (4), pp. 420 - 448	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1742-7150	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/41415
dc.description.abstract	© 2014, © The Author(s) 2014. This article draws on critical race theory to interrogate whiteness in dominant discourses of leadership. We conducted a discourse analysis of the media representations of 12 business leaders engaged in philanthropy in Australia to demonstrate how white practices of normalisation, solipsism and ontological expansiveness underpin the construction of white leaders as speaking for society, mastering all environments and self-sacrificing for the greater good. Our analysis suggests that ‘doing leadership’ is inextricably linked to ‘doing whiteness’, while the invisible presence of whiteness in leadership discourses sustains white power and privilege. By ‘naming’ whiteness and its practices, we aspire to unhinge it from its location as transparent, dominant and ordinary, and begin theorising leadership in ways that are conducive to the goals of racial equality.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Leadership	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1177/1742715014565127	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Business & Management	en_US
dc.title	White Knights: Leadership as the heroicisation of whiteness	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	4	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	12	en_US
utslib.for	1503 Business and Management	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Business
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Business/Management Discipline
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.issue	4	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	12	en_US

Abstract:

© 2014, © The Author(s) 2014. This article draws on critical race theory to interrogate whiteness in dominant discourses of leadership. We conducted a discourse analysis of the media representations of 12 business leaders engaged in philanthropy in Australia to demonstrate how white practices of normalisation, solipsism and ontological expansiveness underpin the construction of white leaders as speaking for society, mastering all environments and self-sacrificing for the greater good. Our analysis suggests that ‘doing leadership’ is inextricably linked to ‘doing whiteness’, while the invisible presence of whiteness in leadership discourses sustains white power and privilege. By ‘naming’ whiteness and its practices, we aspire to unhinge it from its location as transparent, dominant and ordinary, and begin theorising leadership in ways that are conducive to the goals of racial equality.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/41415