Human Being Leader Joanne Pirie

1. Human Being LeaderJoanne Pirie Licentiate Thesis at Stockholm School of Economics

2. Agenda • Sammanfattning av avhandling • Diskussion • Metod och tillvägagångssätt • Empiri och presentationen av densamma • Teoretisk referensram • Tolkning och avslutande diskussion • Sammanfattande omdöme: styrkor och svagheter

3. Point of departure (p.1) • Interest in well-being and apparent lack of well-being • Interest in business life and managerialleaders • ”What are some of the implications of ’norm-al’ life for mangerialleaders?” • ”Whatdoes ”norm-al” life look like when you are a human being who is a managerialleader, in particularone who formallyholds the position of ChiefExecutive Officer (CEO) in a business organization?”

4. Table of Contents 1. The Lives of ManagerialLeaders (p. 1-4) 2. TheoreticalLenses (p. 5-12) 3. StudingManagerialLeader Lives (p. 13-31) 4. ManagerialLeader Lives in the Company (p. 32-100) 5. Stories of ManagerialLeader Life (p. 100-111) 6. Reflections and Conclusions (p. 112-118)

5. Table of Contents 1. The Lives of ManagerialLeaders (p. 1-4) 2. TheoreticalLenses (p. 5-12) 3. StudingManagerialLeader Lives (p. 13-31) 4. ManagerialLeader Lives in the Company (p. 32-100) 5. Stories of ManagerialLeader Life (p. 100-111) 6. Reflections and Conclusions (p. 112-118)

6. Purpose (p. 4) ”The purpose of this study is to use a ”life view” to study the construction of managerialleader life, and reflectabout the implications of this life, for both human beings and organizations.” • What is the social construction of ”norm-al” life as a managerialleader in business organization? • Whatpossibleimplications are there of ”norm-al” managerialleader life for the managerialleader and for other human beingstheyinteract with?

7. Theoretical Lenses (chapter 2, p. 5-23) • Social constructionist perspective • Human Beings: physical, mental, emotional • Speech actions and body actions • Co-creation of self together with others • An ideal-typical model of managerial leader life • Life spheres: public/private, boundaries, activities, relationships • Work activities and relationships • Legal constraints, norms, values • “Small-talk”, “big-talk”, “body-talk” • Work, family and maintenance, leisure • Boundary strategies

8. StudyingManagerialLeader Life (chapter 3, p. 24-31) • CEO (sixinterviewsduringsixmonths) • Management team, five men and twowomen (interviewingeach, seveninterviews in total) • CEO assistant (oneinterview) • Board Chair (oneinterview) • CEO wife (oneinterview) • CEO friend (oneinterview)

9. StudyingManagerialLeader Life (chapter 3, p. 24-31) • Observations • Numerous management team meetings • Internalmeetings and presentations • Public presentations • One sports training with CEO and one of his children

10. ManagerialLeader Lives in the Company (chapter 4, p. 32-99) • Sara – Mike’s wife – and her stories of life with Mike (p. 32-38, 7 pages) • Harold – Mike’s colleague, mentor and friend (p. 39-42, 4 pages) • Jennifer – Mike’s assistant (p. 42-47, 5 pages) • Chairman of the Board and his work relationship with Mike (p. 47-48, 2 pages) • Stories of Mike – the management team (p. 49-57, 8 pages) • Mike’s stories about his life (p. 57-75, 18 pages) • Stories of former CEO Bruce’s life (p.75-78, 3 pages) • Management team as exemplars of managerial leader life (p.79-99, 20 pages)

11. Sara (wife) “From there it was on to a jobwherehewasliving at home from Monday to Fridayonceagain. I experienced it to be a biggerchangecompared with the changesnow with The Company. I noticedthat…wethenlivedtogethermorecompared with the commutingyears and the time in the small Swedish town. I noticed that hewasexpected to be working in the evenings. I didn’tnotice it whenhewascommuting. (…)” “I think that it’simportant that when you have a position like Mike’s and have to move or whatever, thenthere has to be someonenext to you, either you have to be there or you get a divorcebecause you aren’tthere. Wehad friends who did the opposite to us – shestayed in the same town and hemoved and thentheydivorced. I think that somehowsherevealedher position that shewasn’tprepared to sacrifice this for him.”

12. Sara (wife) “Somewhere I havefelt that my time willalso come. I reallydidwant to be at home with the children. Someone has to be thereanyhow. Wehaveoften talked about this – ifwe are bothgoing to have a careerthenweneed a nanny and I felt that I wasn’tprepared to do that. Wehave the children for ourownsake; I don’twantsomeoneelse to takecare of them. So one of us has to earnsufficientamounts of money that the othercantake it easy duringthoseyears. I think that it is reallyimportant to be by his side and support himotherwise I think that it is prettyclose to impossible.” “(…) I oftenfeel that I havesomeone who sleeps at home at night and candrop the childrenoff in the mornings. Thenwhenhecomeshome late at night it doesn’tmatter so muchbecauseeverything rolls alongregardless. The eldestgoesoff to trainingalone and doesn’tneed a lift. The children are growing and managemore on theirown and so you aren’t so dependent on the other.”

13. Harold (colleague, mentor and friend) “I’ve talked with him. Wearen’t so good at talkingaboutrelationships or feelings. Wedothingstogether – on a simple level. We talk about that, we talked about it a long time beforehe got the job at The Company. Above all aboutsecurity in his family and that the family is stable. Sara has a simple background, she is stable and is a no-nonsense person; an importantfactor.” “There is a lot of action also in free time with all sorts of different toys like boats.” “Webothcultivateoldfriendships. I havethree high school friends, who I haveknownsince the 1960s, that I meetregularly. Thesefriendships are more and morevaluable.”

14. Jennifer (executiveassistant) Jennifer says that at timesshe has work phonecalls with Mike on weeknights and weekends. “It helps that I book his trips and I sit and book a lot of trips. It may be so that I book a trip for the wholefamily, that I plan summer accommodation for him and thenhedoesn’t live in a hotelbutrather in a placewherehecanbring his family.” “… you’remetoften with an expectation that you should work verylonghours and at the same time there’s pressure that you shouldhave a large social network, you shouldhobbies, have time to train, drink cocktails the wholelot. It’sreallyimportant, which I think Mike has shown, that it’spossible to balance. For him all thesethings are veryimportanttoo, not in the least his family and children. Hemanages to combinethem.”

15. Cecil (board chairman) “His wholeway of being…it’s a damned... he gives an impression so to speak of well not power butvitality and such like. In that wayhecharmed the committeesomewhat. Then Mike had a goodbackground.” “(…) There are high demandsplaced on employers with regards to equality in order to manage this issue of families with children, especially with regards to women and women’scareerpossibilities. This weshouldrightfullydo and yetwealsohave the problem that there is not equality in people’sfamilies so that bothtake the same amount of responsibility. I havefoundnumerous situations where the girls are always at homewhenchildren are sick because the man can’t. There are workplaceswhere you lose part of your bonus and otherthingsif you takefatherhoodleave. As far as leadership in companies are concernedequality is bettertherebutwehaven’tmanaged to deal with equality in family situations. People themselveshaven’tdealt with equality in theirfamilies, I don’tknowhow it is in the case of Mike, and iftheydon’t it will be difficult to make the wholethingfunction at work either.”

16. Management team The story that most of the members of the management team tell is that Mike’s family relationships and activities are important to him. (…)There is also an acknowledgement of how important it is for a managerial leader to have, in their words, a “wife” who has the possibility to deal with family responsibilities. “It’s definitely a contrast to Bruce. Mike doesn’t talk so much about his private life. He mentions his wife sometimes and then his children in internal information he writes, and that he gives them lifts to training and such like. In any case it’s mostly in descriptive terms about something that has happened so to speak. It’s not like he says that he has a child at home who has problems or… this is what I’ve done or taken them to training. It’s more like facts. There are no problems, no depths, no feelings or anything like that.”

17. Mike’sstoriesabouthis life “I contribute by setting a context, doing the necessaryanalysis, explainwhatneeds to be done, whyweneed to do it and wherewe are going. This is whatleadership is about and then to communicate a feeling that this is a hell of a lot of fun, you have to burn for what you do and then all the time you candothings a bit better, a bit different from howthey’redone today. All the time strivingtowardsexcellence… This is what I am good at. Then I haveotherqualities like being full of ideas and activebuttheydon’thave so much to do with leadership, they’reperhapsbetter from a purely operative perspective. I have a certaineye for detail. But I guess my greateststrength is probably my analyticalability, my ability to thenturn my analysisinto a plan of action and a definite goal and consequently the ability to rhetoricallyexplainwhywe are going go for this goal and whatmayhappenifwedon’tdo so. I can be uncannilypersuasiveif I need to be (…).”

18. Mike’sstoriesabouthis life “I am rather Lutheran – I like beinghere in the officeearly in the morning and being last in the evening. I don’tcarehowothersdotheir work, doing a goodjobinvolvesdelivering. I have a bad conscienceif I leave work tooearly. I thinkit’s a goodquality to be Lutheran.” “(…) I said that I am concernedaboutbalance in life and that it is onlythem who canfind it but that it’sgood for me to knowroughlyspeakingwhat that implies and that they must be able to go from work at shortnotice, or iftheycan’t come in early in the morning becausetheyhave a wife who can’tdropchildrenoff at kindergarten and such like. In that waytheydon’thave to have a bad conscience for it. Butthen just howthey make theirboundaries is up to themwhattheydo and theyhavetheirroutines.”

19. Mike’sstoriesabout his life “There are twothings that I am thinking of - a quote from one of the childrenwhen I camehomeearly on a weekday. I managed to catch a flight from Copenhagen at 3pm so I got home by 5pm. Theyasked ‘What are you doing at home? Are you going back to work?’ … ‘Dadcamehomewhen it was still light.’ Theyhave a very strong perception of time so it wascompletelywrong that I was at home at 5pm whentheyhad just finishedeating.” “Sometimes I think of myself as a bad fatherbecause my energyrunsoutwhen I come homebutgenerallyspeaking I know that I am quite a goodfather. I doprobablymorethanothers in my situation do for theirchildren. (…) I try to spend a lot of time with them on the weekends.”

20. Mike’sstoriesabout his life JP: Has your life and lifestylehavechanged over time as a managerialleader? Mike: No it’sprettymuch the same. It changesalong with my owndevelopment as a person and how the familydevelops. My lifestyle is directedmore by my private situation than my work situation. (…). JP: Howwouldotheremployees at The Company answer the question – “Whatdo you thinkMike’s life is like as a whole?” Mike: They’dthink that I spend a lot of time and care a lotabout my family. I thinkso…it’s in the internal information that I write. I don’tknow I don’tdareanswer the question. Howwouldtheyseeme? I don’tknow. My assistantsaidsomethingabout that. Shehadn’texpectedme to be able to do so much, or to have so much time with the children and the family and all of that. I can’trememberhowshe expressed it ... Oh I thinktheysee so little of me that I thinkit’sdifficult for them to form an opinion, otherthanthoseclosecolleagues who have a clearerpicture.

21. Management team on former CEO • Focus on relations rather than task • Confirming and appreciative • Unclear communication, focus on consensus • Worked all the time – no boundaries • Unavailable and non-present due to excessive travel and other work commitments Perceived to be very different from Mike!

22. Management team on theirownlives “I sleep nearly five hours, until 6am. I am at work between 7:30am and 5pm. Then I do a little sport. I work with youngsters and train a team, as well as sit on the board of the club and work on some projects. I go to training with them three days a week and then several hours disappear for matches each weekend. After training its time for work, a bit of food and helping the children with their homework for about an hour or two. Then work – I do some preparation for work the following day and think a little about things. (…) On Fridays at 5pm I “turn off” unless there is some real crisis (He repeats “if it is a real crisis” three times in the next sentences- author’s note.) I spend time with the family, make a good meal, watch TV, hug the kids, always on Friday evenings. I never work on Friday evening unless there’s something really serious. Saturdays are always spent with the family and then Sundays until around dinnertime, after which I work 2-3 hours from about 7pm in preparation for the new week. That’s how the week looks.”

23. Management team on theirownlives “It’sveryfree. At higherlevelsit’sverymuch up to the individual to solve it. If you like weren’there a fewhalfdays or half a day and it wasn’tclearwhere you were it would be a problem. Butthenit’svery flexible but all the people who report to me work morethan 40 hours a week.” “I think that I haveveryfreeworkinghours in the sense that, and Mike has alsocommented on this, it doesn’tmatterwhere I am and where I do my work. Ifthey’redonethey’redone and that’swhatcounts. I toldhim in one of our first meetings that I try to work at homeoneday a week, partly to avoid sitting in traffic jams, partlybecause you get little… you can get certain work tasks done a littlebetterwhen you are undisturbed, havepeace and quiet. I am contactable and I know that my closestcolleaguescanreachme. When you sitquietly at homeit’sbetter. Mike saidthat’s great and he has said to me that it’simportant to have this balancebetween work life and private life. So this is I guessoneway to try to achieve that.”

24. Stories of managerial leader life (chapter 5, p. 100-111) • Work organizing life: In practice work activities and relationships are number one priority • “Big talk” + Co-constructing the managerial “self”: Big talk constructs CEO as exception-al, all spheres of CEO is seen as embodiment of organization, CEO constructs an image of himself as a family man • “Body talk”: Symbolic aspects of managerial body in terms of appearance and fitness, energy, feelings (stay positive) • Relationships: Managerial leaders are dependant on others yet they seem unaware of the support they get (masculine gendered career pattern), they rely on on old relationships which hinders personal development • Maintenance sphere: Depends on a life partner to take care of home/family, pressure on the body and bodily needs • Leisure sphere activities: Adapted to work and then a combination of own interest and family (football coaches, skiing, boats) • Multi-faceted human beings: contradictions between “speech-actions” and “body-actions”

25. Reflections and conclusions (chapter 6, p. 112-118) • Managerial leader “self” at the center of attention: Position of power makes unaware of impact and dependence on others, “frozen” and “rigid” self. • Human doing leader vs. human being leader: Un-reflected person unable to grasp ethical/moral dilemmas, pressure on “life leadership” manage work-life-balance and and keeping the managerial body fit and strong • Managerial leaders – life competence/qualifications: Stable family that adjusts to the CEO’s work, being able to work all the time, adapt the “self”/”personality” • Constructing the “norm-al” and “exception-al” managerial leader: Narrowing life space, elitism, lack of inflow of norms and values, intolerance of humanness

26. First question… WHO IS HE?!!

27. Second question: Access • Given his incrediblybusyschedule, whydidhewant to participate in your study? • Whatwas his agenda and how has it affected your material?

28. Interviews and observations • Why not more informants from private sphere: children, parents, sibblings, close friends? • Whyonlyobservingone private occasion? • Why not moreinterviews with CEO:swife? • Ask them to create a “life-line” visualizing private/public events? • Whataboutchallengingquestionsreversingfocus from public to private, from CEO to CEO’swife, childrenetc? Invitinginterviewees to criticallyreflect? • Didsomeoneever ask for your feedback or thoughts? • Interview guide?

29. Presenting the material • How come you choose to present the material in this way? • Start with basic facts? Education, background, different jobs, number of children, their age… • Why didn’t you use your observations more?

30. Wheninterpreting your material… … was this what you expected or wastheresomething that surprised you?

31. Theoretical lens Would have expected… • … additional theories and research on construction of self • … additional theories and research on well-being and stress in work life • … additional theories and research on private-public divide

32. Research of interest to your study… • Organizing work-family obligations (Wahl 1992, Franzén, Linghag & Zander 1998, Andersson 1997, Höök 2001b, Bekkengen 2002, Reis 2004) • Power relations between spouses within heterosexual couples (Haavind 1994, Holmberg 1999) • Managers overtime culture (Cockburn 1992, Halford et al 1997, Rutherford 2011) • Work-life-stress and work-life-balance (Lundberg & Frankenhaeuser 1999, Martin 1999, Linghag 2010) • Manager-secretary-relationship, manager-wife-relationship (Kanter 1977, Pringle 1989, Reis 2004) • Male norm in leadership (Kanter 1977, Collinson & Hearn 1996, Wahl 1996, Höök 2001a) • Different masculinities among managers and executives (Collinson & Hearn 1996, Holgersson 2003, Fogelberg Eriksson 2005) • Social class among groups of elite men (Lindgren 1992, 1999, Holgersson 2003, Göransson 2006, Hamrén 2007) • Homosociality (Kanter 1977, Roper 1996, Lindgren 1996, Holgersson 2006, Hamrén 2007)

33. What I find of particular interest… Different masculinities: the rise of “the new CEO” Social class, international careers and family arrangements Work-life-balance and flexibility discourse individualizing structures

34. Different Business Masculinities • Authoritarianism • Paternalism • Entrepreneurialism • Careerism • Informalism (Collinson & Hearn, 1996)

35. Different Business Masculinities • Authoritarianism • Paternalism • Entrepreneurialism • Careerism • Informalism (Collinson & Hearn, 1996) Fantomenärdöd! LängeleveFantomen! How different are they?!

36. “The rise of the new CEO” • Speed of execution • Impatient • Focus on task and result • Challenge their organizations • Speaks of opportunities and solutions • Straight forward (no tie) • Athletic and competitive (runs races) • Finance focus rather than technology • International experience (ex pat) • Emphasize diversity • Believes gender equality is a non-issue • Stable marriage, supportive wife • More than two children and a pet • Talks about family (football coach) • Manage others to balance his work-life-situation • Class traveler The “young guys” challenging the “old guys” through homosocial confirmation rituals resulting in inclusion and exclusion…

37. “The CEO of today” • Who is he: A hero? A pampered narcissistic “doer”? A self-destructive nutcase? A victim? • How do these social constructions of managerial leaders impact society (business and industry and work-life)?

38. Strengths and weaknesses in thesis • + interesting and important topic • + interesting empirical material • + well-written • +/- clear, yet quite limited, theoretical position • - limited references to previous research • +/- valid and interesting, yet quite “shallow”, interpretations without theoretical references • +/- opens up for opportunity to discuss impact on work-life and society at large, but does not take this opportunity