Stranger Leaders: A Theory of Marginal Leaders’ Conception of Learning in Organizations
通过对69家跨国企业学习与发展高管的归纳研究，构建了边缘领导者对组织中学习构想的理论，揭示了他们如何通过构想学习来塑造领导者身份，并探讨了不同轨迹（从边缘走向领导或从边缘领导）的差异。
Through an inductive study of learning and development (L&D) executives in 69 multinational organizations, we build a theory of marginal leaders’ conception of learning in organizations. We found that, as marginal leaders, L&D executives lacked an established template for their leader identity and had to navigate conflicting prescriptions for their function. The conception of learning—a process that involved finding a place in relation to significant counterparts, taking a stance on learning, and building learning spaces—allowed them to craft identities that gave meaning and direction to their work, grounding their identity as leaders. Not all marginal leaders took the same trajectory toward firm ground for their identities. Some left the margins to lead, embracing either an instrumental or a humanistic view of their function. Others learned to lead from the margins, casting that duality as a paradox. Taking a systems psychodynamic approach to examine marginal leaders’ trajectories through a defining duality, this study reveals the interplay between existential and strategic layers of leader identity construction. Theorizing the conception of learning as the process through which leadership comes to life and becomes organized, the study expands and bridges the literatures on leader identity and on the management of dualities.