Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to send you below a call for papers for a conference to be held at the University of Paris Nanterre on April 21st, 2023.

Best regards,

Elvis Buckwalter and Sherry Robinson



CALL FOR PAPERS
A NEW ERA OF LEADERSHIP: DIGITAL DISCOURSE, CULTURE(S) AND COMMUNICATION

Conference
Université Paris-Nanterre (France)
21 April 2023


Deadline for submission: March 6th, 2023

The 2020s have ushered in a new era of what it means to be a leader. Compounded by the turmoil brought on by both the COVID-19 pandemic as well as an increasingly fragile geopolitical climate, leaders are now faced with having to adapt to a new age of cultural discourse based on digital communication. The inextricable association between leadership and communication (de Vries, R. E., Bakker-Pieper, A., & Oostenveld, W. 2010) has expanded to include computer mediation as a prerequisite for efficient collaborations to take place. No longer are face-to-face (FTF) social interactions sufficient – or even necessary – in themselves to ensure goals are being met; increasingly, leaders are relying on computer-mediated communication (CMC) (Wang, Y., & Wang, Y. 2022) to achieve organizational objectives.

From the individual entrepreneur working in a loose network of external partners to the CEO at the helm of a highly integrated and multi-faceted organization, the generalization of computer-mediated communication (eg. video conferencing, webinars, artificial intelligence, social media and messaging, etc.) has to a considerable degree empowered leaders and their team members in their transition to this new generation of e-leadership. Leaders with technological savvy clearly have an edge over those traditional leaders who do not: increased professional well-being (Zeike, S., Bradbury, K., Lindert, L., & Pfaff, H. 2019), greater ability to motivate team members (Aldawood, H., Alhejaili, A., Alabadi, M., Alharbi, O., & Skinner, G. 2019) and enhanced intercultural skills are among the many advantages afforded to these leaders.

Veering towards a changing culture of digital communication, leaders have had to adopt different strategies and take into account new paradigms of cultural discourse. To this end, one is compelled to consider the possibility of an “epistemic” shift described by Michel Foucault (1972) brought on by an “extreme context” (Musca, G., Mellet, C., Rouleau, L., Simoni, G., Sitri, F., & De Vogüé, S. 2019) or “cataclysmic event” (Bardi 2017) such as the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on digital discourse, culture and communication. This new virtual context has altered how time and space are perceived by leaders and their teams.

“Virtual leaders” at the center of these “virtual teams” have not only been more successful in enduring this transition out of necessity, but they have also become instrumental in defining key success factors for future collaborations (Swart, K., Bond-Barnard, T., & Chugh, R. 2022). This new era has even propelled individuals into key leadership roles not because of their experience in managing teams, but rather because of their digital savvy and presence on social media platforms. (Rullo, L., & Nunziata, F. 2021).

This one-day conference seeks to explore leaders’ experience of the post-pandemic era and stimulate research into what the cultural and discursive implications of this new era will be for future leaders. The conference aims to gather researchers and professionals from an array of disciplines (cultural studies, management science, entrepreneurial studies, intercultural studies, discourse analysis...) in a dynamic, interactive context to discuss about the cultural shift currently underway as a result of the pandemic, and its impact on a new discursive constructs and communicational strategies.

Some themes to be explored:

The role of English as a lingua franca (ELF) among leaders in intercultural scenarios ;
Emerging digital culture(s) and its impact on communicative strategies among leaders ;
Linguistic and discursive analyses of specific discourse practices which inform “the discourse of leadership” ;
Effects of cataclysmic events and extreme contexts on cultural discourse and communication ;
Shifts in perception of time and space in digital communication scenarios (synchronous, k-synchronous, asynchronous) ;
International virtual exchange (IVE) in professional and educational contexts ;
The “digital divide” and its impact on communication strategies among leaders and entrepreneurs.


Keynote speakers:

Sherry Robinson, Professor of Business, Entrepreneurial Studies, Penn State University, United States

Jonathan Clifton, Associate Professor of Business Communication, Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, France


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Contacts: Elvis Buckwalter and Sherry Robinson ebuckwalter@parisnanterre.fr and skr12@psu.edu


Proposals for conference papers (title + abstract of 300-500 words) are to be sent to both Elvis Buckwalter and Sherry Robinson by March 6th 2023. Responses will be sent at the end of March 2023.

Languages for the conference are English and French.

Elvis Buckwalter
Maître de conférences
Associate Professor Business/English
UFR Langues et Cultures Étrangères (LCE)
200 av. de la République - 92001 Nanterre Cedex