Doctoral researcher & Associate Lecturer at Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University. Research focus: Relational, embodied leader-follower-ship - lessons for management from dancesport.
If occupiers are to be able to make correct decisions on property, they, or their advisors, need ... more If occupiers are to be able to make correct decisions on property, they, or their advisors, need to understand how it contributes, not only to costs but also more importantly to the knowledge and service processes of the organisation. The question is less 'How does property benefit occupiers?' and more 'How do occupiers secure maximum benefit from property?'. The literature, despite some claims and examples, does not answer either question. The results of this first occupier.org study are presented on this site in three levels. The raw data is in the literature database where there is an evaluative summary of individual contributions. The full report that follows draws those contributions into a cohesive thread, acknowledging relevant source material in the standard academic fashion. This overview, without attributions, sums up the main messages for the real estate professional. Some disclaimers are necessary. The review is restricted to material in the public domain...
We are offering for discussion a comparison between a corporate HQ building that is close to the ... more We are offering for discussion a comparison between a corporate HQ building that is close to the cutting edge of current practice (as indicated by other CEOs ordering one like it) and a business school in a university generally hailed as a model of efficiency in the HE estates community.
ABSTRACT No-one can predict the future. No-one can be sure what will happen next month, next year... more ABSTRACT No-one can predict the future. No-one can be sure what will happen next month, next year, or fifty years from now. Many people have tried -from prophets to mathematicians -but most predictions go awry. However, we can identify a number of possible futures, and especially the areas in which major change is likely to occur. Understanding the range of possible futures can help organisations plan how to cope with any of those futures. Scenario planning is one way of doing this.
Research project carried out by a multi-disciplinary research team at Sheffield Hallam Univ.Avail... more Research project carried out by a multi-disciplinary research team at Sheffield Hallam Univ.Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:q97/12480 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo
This workshop aims to explore the role of the follower in enabling leadership, the leader's t... more This workshop aims to explore the role of the follower in enabling leadership, the leader's twofold obligation to the present and the future, issues around power and 'powerful-ness', as well as the relevance of this in a work context. We will use both the metaphor and the reality of ballroom dancing to explore and challenge our behaviour and assumptions in our roles as leaders and followers in a mix of practical dance exercises and reflection. Since this is 'work in progress', participants' contributions are essential to the outcome.
All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you... more All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you access and read them immediately.
A short workshop focused on generating scenarios can act to draw people together from across an o... more A short workshop focused on generating scenarios can act to draw people together from across an organisation. The authors describe a process they have designed and implemented across several organisations and report on the key lessons they have learned.
Purpose This paper examines the three-way connection between league tables, student choice of uni... more Purpose This paper examines the three-way connection between league tables, student choice of university and university facilities, a topic area that has so far seen little research. In the decade since Price et al. (2003) highlighted the links between university facilities and students’ choice of institution, changes in technology and the rise of league tables render an update necessary. Design/methodology/approach The empirical research focuses on one top league university with a 1960s campus, using a mixed-method approach, including results from the annual York University Student Union survey (results of a survey with 2,382 responses, and 3,500 focus group comments) and from research carried out by one of the authors (a survey with 331 responses and 144 comments from focus groups. Results from the Unite Student Experience Report 2012 (based on 1,236 responses) were also used. Findings The influence of league tables on students’ choices was strongly confirmed. There are expectatio...
This paper tells the story of a journey of inquiry, which has turned into a journey of research, ... more This paper tells the story of a journey of inquiry, which has turned into a journey of research, through the lens of collaborative autoethnographic work, connecting work lives, private lives, dance lives, a journey in time (nearly two decades) but also in spaces (dancefloors, universities, other organisations). It connects dance competitions with organisational life, dance performance with organisational performance, leader-follower-ship on the dancefloor with leader-follower-ship in organisations (Matzdorf 2005, Matzdorf & Sen 2005, Matzdorf & Sen 2014), but also reflection on dance with reflection on work and reflection on relationships in general (and how to make them work). The authors describe and reflect upon layers of mutual influence between work, life in organizations and dance.
In this paper, we aim to ‘unpick’ the spatial elements of leadership and followership in competit... more In this paper, we aim to ‘unpick’ the spatial elements of leadership and followership in competitive ballroom dancing and to explore how they relate to organisational life. To explain and underpin this relational field, we use examples from our own learning journeys, both as amateur dancers and in our professional roles. Our research angle is best summed up by Stelter (2008):
In our experience, managers can learn much from modern competitive ballroom dancing. Dance embodi... more In our experience, managers can learn much from modern competitive ballroom dancing. Dance embodies many aspects of organisational life in a microcosm – teamwork , power relationships, job roles, competition, politics, etc. In our experience with dance and leadership workshops, it offers dancers and non-dancers alike a medium to explore, experiment and challenge within a facilitated ‘safe’ and playful environment. We argue that, based on the concept of embodied cognition, dance can provide a vehicle for immediate, implicit ‘insights’ and ‘aha effects’ through sensory, bodily experiences. Ballroom dancing as a competitive sport is not your grandmother’s tea dance: it is not leisurely and mechanistic, but fast, powerful and dynamic, pushing the dancers to the limit of their strength and stamina. Both partners have to put in almost equal amounts of energy and power to make a performance work (many top coaches estimate it as ‘leader 51%, follower 49%’). We cannot emphasise the ‘power of...
This experiential and highly participative workshop uses both the metaphor and the reality of bal... more This experiential and highly participative workshop uses both the metaphor and the reality of ballroom dancing to explore and challenge behaviours and assumptions in our roles as leaders and followers in a mix of practical dance exercises and reflection. We will be looking at leadership and followership as a mutually enabled and enabling relationship. We explore, amongst other issues, the role of the follower, the leader’s twofold obligation to the present and the future, issues around power and ‘powerful-ness’, as well as the relevance of this to organisational context. Participants will be able to explore their own leadership, followership and teamworking behaviour and patterns, but this is also an opportunity to reflect on the use of experiential learning methods in management education and development. The workshop will be run by two experienced facilitators (and dancers). To overcome the challenges of a ‘journey into the unknown’ and encourage an atmosphere of acceptance, mutua...
Purpose and Theory: In UK higher education institutions, facilities management performance tends ... more Purpose and Theory: In UK higher education institutions, facilities management performance tends to be measured in space utilisation and space cost. A new approach uses the �return on investment� (ROI) concept of income generation to highlight space performance at faculty/department/building level. Design and approach: Using space data from several English universities and data envelopment analysis (DEA), six types of academic units (departments, institutes or similar) are compared in regard of their respective research and teaching income. This technique allows mapping out the total �envelope� with the best performers at the edge, showing what improvement/change would be needed for the others in the group to match their performance. Findings: This is a viable method of benchmarking and gives participating institutions better and more strategic and business-oriented feedback on the performance of their space envelope than mere cost comparisons. It can potentially inform strategic de...
Purpose : Reports a service ecosystem in FM as a basis for understanding peoples’ roles Theory : ... more Purpose : Reports a service ecosystem in FM as a basis for understanding peoples’ roles Theory : The service ecosystem model Design/methodology/approach : Interpretive, but realistic, qualitative research into perceptions of FM excellence Findings : The importance of perceptions and narratives in shaping FM services. Originality/value, Presents the first mapped example of a service ecosystem and shows how it can be used in practice.
In this paper, we explore how leadership and followership are relational, mutually constructed an... more In this paper, we explore how leadership and followership are relational, mutually constructed and mutually enabled. Using dancesport as metaphor and medium, we focus on the embodied, corporeal aspects and dynamics of leading and following, relating them to lead/follow roles and tasks of people in organizations. In a mainly autoethnographic exploration of the lived experiences of people in leader-follower-relationships, we use the concept of embodied cognition as a basis and argue that dance can provide a vehicle for immediate, implicit “insights” and even “aha effects” through sensory, bodily experiences.
Many academics and consultants now look at others’ organisational learning, but to what extent do... more Many academics and consultants now look at others’ organisational learning, but to what extent do they look at their own learning? This paper arises from a one-year study of the learning of a research team who were working on organisationa l learning within the surveying profession. Issues of interest included how the team was ‘learningful’, how the research was better as a result, what the effect of the topic upon the research style was, and how technology contributed to the team’s learning. We discuss here several ways in which we observed the team to be acting in a ‘learningful’ manner, although observe that this may have derived from the backgrounds and characters of team members as much as anything they specifically did. Our discussion of the case is framed within the context of the interplay between individual, team and organisational learning.
If occupiers are to be able to make correct decisions on property, they, or their advisors, need ... more If occupiers are to be able to make correct decisions on property, they, or their advisors, need to understand how it contributes, not only to costs but also more importantly to the knowledge and service processes of the organisation. The question is less 'How does property benefit occupiers?' and more 'How do occupiers secure maximum benefit from property?'. The literature, despite some claims and examples, does not answer either question. The results of this first occupier.org study are presented on this site in three levels. The raw data is in the literature database where there is an evaluative summary of individual contributions. The full report that follows draws those contributions into a cohesive thread, acknowledging relevant source material in the standard academic fashion. This overview, without attributions, sums up the main messages for the real estate professional. Some disclaimers are necessary. The review is restricted to material in the public domain...
We are offering for discussion a comparison between a corporate HQ building that is close to the ... more We are offering for discussion a comparison between a corporate HQ building that is close to the cutting edge of current practice (as indicated by other CEOs ordering one like it) and a business school in a university generally hailed as a model of efficiency in the HE estates community.
ABSTRACT No-one can predict the future. No-one can be sure what will happen next month, next year... more ABSTRACT No-one can predict the future. No-one can be sure what will happen next month, next year, or fifty years from now. Many people have tried -from prophets to mathematicians -but most predictions go awry. However, we can identify a number of possible futures, and especially the areas in which major change is likely to occur. Understanding the range of possible futures can help organisations plan how to cope with any of those futures. Scenario planning is one way of doing this.
Research project carried out by a multi-disciplinary research team at Sheffield Hallam Univ.Avail... more Research project carried out by a multi-disciplinary research team at Sheffield Hallam Univ.Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:q97/12480 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo
This workshop aims to explore the role of the follower in enabling leadership, the leader's t... more This workshop aims to explore the role of the follower in enabling leadership, the leader's twofold obligation to the present and the future, issues around power and 'powerful-ness', as well as the relevance of this in a work context. We will use both the metaphor and the reality of ballroom dancing to explore and challenge our behaviour and assumptions in our roles as leaders and followers in a mix of practical dance exercises and reflection. Since this is 'work in progress', participants' contributions are essential to the outcome.
All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you... more All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you access and read them immediately.
A short workshop focused on generating scenarios can act to draw people together from across an o... more A short workshop focused on generating scenarios can act to draw people together from across an organisation. The authors describe a process they have designed and implemented across several organisations and report on the key lessons they have learned.
Purpose This paper examines the three-way connection between league tables, student choice of uni... more Purpose This paper examines the three-way connection between league tables, student choice of university and university facilities, a topic area that has so far seen little research. In the decade since Price et al. (2003) highlighted the links between university facilities and students’ choice of institution, changes in technology and the rise of league tables render an update necessary. Design/methodology/approach The empirical research focuses on one top league university with a 1960s campus, using a mixed-method approach, including results from the annual York University Student Union survey (results of a survey with 2,382 responses, and 3,500 focus group comments) and from research carried out by one of the authors (a survey with 331 responses and 144 comments from focus groups. Results from the Unite Student Experience Report 2012 (based on 1,236 responses) were also used. Findings The influence of league tables on students’ choices was strongly confirmed. There are expectatio...
This paper tells the story of a journey of inquiry, which has turned into a journey of research, ... more This paper tells the story of a journey of inquiry, which has turned into a journey of research, through the lens of collaborative autoethnographic work, connecting work lives, private lives, dance lives, a journey in time (nearly two decades) but also in spaces (dancefloors, universities, other organisations). It connects dance competitions with organisational life, dance performance with organisational performance, leader-follower-ship on the dancefloor with leader-follower-ship in organisations (Matzdorf 2005, Matzdorf & Sen 2005, Matzdorf & Sen 2014), but also reflection on dance with reflection on work and reflection on relationships in general (and how to make them work). The authors describe and reflect upon layers of mutual influence between work, life in organizations and dance.
In this paper, we aim to ‘unpick’ the spatial elements of leadership and followership in competit... more In this paper, we aim to ‘unpick’ the spatial elements of leadership and followership in competitive ballroom dancing and to explore how they relate to organisational life. To explain and underpin this relational field, we use examples from our own learning journeys, both as amateur dancers and in our professional roles. Our research angle is best summed up by Stelter (2008):
In our experience, managers can learn much from modern competitive ballroom dancing. Dance embodi... more In our experience, managers can learn much from modern competitive ballroom dancing. Dance embodies many aspects of organisational life in a microcosm – teamwork , power relationships, job roles, competition, politics, etc. In our experience with dance and leadership workshops, it offers dancers and non-dancers alike a medium to explore, experiment and challenge within a facilitated ‘safe’ and playful environment. We argue that, based on the concept of embodied cognition, dance can provide a vehicle for immediate, implicit ‘insights’ and ‘aha effects’ through sensory, bodily experiences. Ballroom dancing as a competitive sport is not your grandmother’s tea dance: it is not leisurely and mechanistic, but fast, powerful and dynamic, pushing the dancers to the limit of their strength and stamina. Both partners have to put in almost equal amounts of energy and power to make a performance work (many top coaches estimate it as ‘leader 51%, follower 49%’). We cannot emphasise the ‘power of...
This experiential and highly participative workshop uses both the metaphor and the reality of bal... more This experiential and highly participative workshop uses both the metaphor and the reality of ballroom dancing to explore and challenge behaviours and assumptions in our roles as leaders and followers in a mix of practical dance exercises and reflection. We will be looking at leadership and followership as a mutually enabled and enabling relationship. We explore, amongst other issues, the role of the follower, the leader’s twofold obligation to the present and the future, issues around power and ‘powerful-ness’, as well as the relevance of this to organisational context. Participants will be able to explore their own leadership, followership and teamworking behaviour and patterns, but this is also an opportunity to reflect on the use of experiential learning methods in management education and development. The workshop will be run by two experienced facilitators (and dancers). To overcome the challenges of a ‘journey into the unknown’ and encourage an atmosphere of acceptance, mutua...
Purpose and Theory: In UK higher education institutions, facilities management performance tends ... more Purpose and Theory: In UK higher education institutions, facilities management performance tends to be measured in space utilisation and space cost. A new approach uses the �return on investment� (ROI) concept of income generation to highlight space performance at faculty/department/building level. Design and approach: Using space data from several English universities and data envelopment analysis (DEA), six types of academic units (departments, institutes or similar) are compared in regard of their respective research and teaching income. This technique allows mapping out the total �envelope� with the best performers at the edge, showing what improvement/change would be needed for the others in the group to match their performance. Findings: This is a viable method of benchmarking and gives participating institutions better and more strategic and business-oriented feedback on the performance of their space envelope than mere cost comparisons. It can potentially inform strategic de...
Purpose : Reports a service ecosystem in FM as a basis for understanding peoples’ roles Theory : ... more Purpose : Reports a service ecosystem in FM as a basis for understanding peoples’ roles Theory : The service ecosystem model Design/methodology/approach : Interpretive, but realistic, qualitative research into perceptions of FM excellence Findings : The importance of perceptions and narratives in shaping FM services. Originality/value, Presents the first mapped example of a service ecosystem and shows how it can be used in practice.
In this paper, we explore how leadership and followership are relational, mutually constructed an... more In this paper, we explore how leadership and followership are relational, mutually constructed and mutually enabled. Using dancesport as metaphor and medium, we focus on the embodied, corporeal aspects and dynamics of leading and following, relating them to lead/follow roles and tasks of people in organizations. In a mainly autoethnographic exploration of the lived experiences of people in leader-follower-relationships, we use the concept of embodied cognition as a basis and argue that dance can provide a vehicle for immediate, implicit “insights” and even “aha effects” through sensory, bodily experiences.
Many academics and consultants now look at others’ organisational learning, but to what extent do... more Many academics and consultants now look at others’ organisational learning, but to what extent do they look at their own learning? This paper arises from a one-year study of the learning of a research team who were working on organisationa l learning within the surveying profession. Issues of interest included how the team was ‘learningful’, how the research was better as a result, what the effect of the topic upon the research style was, and how technology contributed to the team’s learning. We discuss here several ways in which we observed the team to be acting in a ‘learningful’ manner, although observe that this may have derived from the backgrounds and characters of team members as much as anything they specifically did. Our discussion of the case is framed within the context of the interplay between individual, team and organisational learning.
This experiential and highly participative workshop uses both the metaphor and the reality of bal... more This experiential and highly participative workshop uses both the metaphor and the reality of ballroom dancing to explore and challenge behaviours and assumptions in our roles as leaders and followers in a mix of practical dance exercises and reflection.
We are looking at leadership and followership as a mutually enabled and enabling relationship. We explore, amongst other issues, the role of the follower, the leader’s twofold obligation to the present and the future, issues around power and ‘powerful-ness’, as well as the relevance of this to organisational context. Participants are able to explore their own leadership, followership and teamworking behaviour and patterns, but this is also an opportunity to reflect on the use of experiential learning methods in management education and development.
The workshop is run by two experienced facilitators (and dancers). To overcome the challenges of a ‘journey into the unknown’ and encourage an atmosphere of acceptance, mutual support and enjoyment, we use a combination of ground rules, helpful insights and ways of managing the shared and private spaces of a partnership.
Proceedings of the 7th International Art of Management and Organization conference, 2015
Management can learn much from modern competitive ballroom dancing. Dance embodies many aspects o... more Management can learn much from modern competitive ballroom dancing. Dance embodies many aspects of organisational life in a microcosm – teamwork , power relationships, job roles, competition, politics, etc. In the authors' experience with dance and leadership workshops, it offers dancers and non-dancers alike a medium to explore, experiment and challenge within a facilitated ‘safe’ and playful environment. We argue that, based on the concept of embodied cognition, dance can provide a vehicle for immediate, implicit ‘insights’ and ‘aha effects’ through sensory, bodily experiences.
dilemmas entailed by the practicalities of the research design and process (e.g. how to agree and... more dilemmas entailed by the practicalities of the research design and process (e.g. how to agree and manage a project plan with one's supervisor; how to cope with potentially unethical practices involving research participants in organizational settings). Furthermore, despite the limitations identified above, Brewerton and Millward's approach can be congenial to the established researcher as well. In this sense, the peculiarity of their analysis lies in the fact that it offers an opportunity not only for reflecting on one's own research strategies or exercising one's critical ability, but also for thinking afresh about some specific activities and phases in the conduct of the research process (like, for example, using the internet as a resource during preliminary explorations or managing the logistics of an increasingly widely appreciated technique such as the focus group). These are among the main reasons why we may well conclude that, taken as a whole, the book under review can be differentiated from the mainstream of already existing texts on organizational research methods.
Humanistic Management: Leadership and Trust, Volume I: Foundations, Cases, and Exercises, 2018
This chapter is based on a series of experiential workshops and exercises to help leaders and fol... more This chapter is based on a series of experiential workshops and exercises to help leaders and followers to be more mindful about their leading and following styles, and the impact that has on their followers or leaders. This approach has emanated from the authors’ experience as academics, practitioners, and dancers. It focuses on management learning in a holistic way, and as such differs from management training that tends to focus on skills in a rationalist, often utilitarian way, providing “toolkits” to achieve simple cause-and-effect chains. This workshop has the potential to be enlightening and empowering, both for leaders and followers. It helps people to understand better the “lead” and “follow” roles and their mutual dependence, as well as to understand the implications of different leadership styles. The workshops are based on the view that leader-follower-ship is seen as relational, mutually constructed, and mutually enabling, rather than hierarchical and based on power and authority.
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Papers by Fides Matzdorf
We are looking at leadership and followership as a mutually enabled and enabling relationship. We explore, amongst other issues, the role of the follower, the leader’s twofold obligation to the present and the future, issues around power and ‘powerful-ness’, as well as the relevance of this to organisational context. Participants are able to explore their own leadership, followership and teamworking behaviour and patterns, but this is also an opportunity to reflect on the use of experiential learning methods in management education and development.
The workshop is run by two experienced facilitators (and dancers). To overcome the challenges of a ‘journey into the unknown’ and encourage an atmosphere of acceptance, mutual support and enjoyment, we use a combination of ground rules, helpful insights and ways of managing the shared and private spaces of a partnership.