ACT Research Seminar - Abusive leadership in the arts and cultural sector and implications for governance.

Event details

Accounts of abusive leadership in the cultural industries have made shocking headlines in recent years. Despite this visibility, and the related impact of the #MeToo movement, abusive leadership remains woefully under-explored in academic research. My talk addresses this gap by reviewing the literature on cultural leadership, governance and abusive leadership. It then reports and analyses the findings of empirical research based on 18 semi-structured interviews conducted with participants from a range of professional roles and art forms. The study paints a disturbing picture of the “workplace injustice” described by Greenberg (1990: 180) and “petty tyranny” depicted by Ashforth (1997). I argue that it is only by sharing these accounts and encouraging critical reflection on why such behaviours endure that we can have any hope of addressing the problem; and that in order to succeed, this must be a collective endeavour.

About the speaker

Professor Ben Walmsley, is the Dean of Cultural Engagement at the University of Leeds. He was the founder and inaugural
Director of the Centre for Cultural Value, where he now remains as Associate Director for Policy. Prior to his academic career, Ben worked as an arts manager for ten years, most recently as producer at the National Theatre of Scotland. Since 2014, Ben has been the Academic Director of England’s national Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy Programme. Ben has published widely on arts marketing, arts management, cultural policy and cultural value. He recently led a national research project investigating the impacts of Covid-19 on the UK’s cultural sector and his monograph Audience Engagement in the Performing Arts was published in 2019.