Negotiating professional identities through face-work in conflict situations. Two case studies of co-leadership

Co-leadership has been described as “two leaders in vertically contiguous positions who share responsibilities of leadership” (Heenan & Bennis 1999). Research on co-leadership has pointed out various benefits of accomplishing leadership collaboratively, such as improving leadership effectiveness. And while it has been shown that co-leadership may involve the sharing of maintenance and task related activities, other less harmonious aspects of co-leadership have often been overlooked.Drawing on more than 20 hours of authentic discourse data collected in two workplaces in Hong Kong, we explore one aspects of this “other side” of co-leadership: we look at how leaders and their co-leaders negotiate their roles and responsibilities in less harmonious situations. Using the framework of rapport management (Spencer-Oatey 2000) and considering recent developments in the notion of face (e.g. Spencer-Oatey 2007), we explore some of the linguistic strategies employed by leaders and their co-leaders in situations where their respective interests are in conflict. Our particular focus is on how these professionals negotiate their quality and identity face needs while at the same time constructing their various professional identities.Findings from two case studies indicate that the leaders and co-leaders employ a range of different rapport management strategies when dealing with potential conflict. Our particular focus is on two aspects of co-leadership, namely negotiating responsibilities of chairing meetings, and discussing and sometimes challenging each others’ roles and professional duties. In these situations interlocutors do face-work and construct their professional (leader-) identities in ways that reflect their self-perception, their role in the organisation, as well as normative ways of doing things in their workplace. Our analysis illustrates some of the complex ways in which face-work and the construction of professional identities are simultaneously accomplished in a workplace context.