Opening Up and Closing Down: The Interpretive Repertoires of Leading Innovation

The article argues for a greater attention to be given to discursive approaches to the leadership of innovation through proposing a variant of Potter and Wetherell’s concept of interpretative repertoires. Drawing upon empirical material from a case study of managers engaged in R & D activities at a multimedia company, the study illustrates how the talk and thought of leadership reveals the contrasting discursive resources and interpretative repertoires underpinning the leadership of innovation. The article proposes, illustrates and develops six interpretative repertoires for leading the practices and processes of innovation. These are informed by six images or root metaphors: creating, challenging, focusing, selling, linking and travelling. In turn, these prompt leadership practices that either encourage variety, secure agreement or a combination of the two.