'Challenging Objectivity in Management Research: Creating Management Knowledge from the Inside-Out' Leadership, Organisations, Behaviour and Reputation Research Seminar

Professor Ladkin is a philosopher and musician by training, with an unconventional approach to leadership theorising that focuses on its enactment as an embodied phenomenon with aesthetic and ethical dimensions. She is the author of seven books, including the award winning Rethinking Leadership: a New Look at Old Leadership Questions and Challenging Colonizing Logics within Management Research, published by Edward Elgar in June 2025.

The topic of this presentation is 'Challenging Objectivity in Management Research: Creating Management Knowledge from the Inside-Out'. This seminar will explore the theoretical framing of how subjectivity can enhance understanding of a field of interest and offer valuable launch points for generating innovative and inclusive insights.

Academics trained within the Western research paradigm often hold 'objectivity' as the gold standard of valid knowledge creation processes. Those that undertake research within contexts they understand well tend to strive towards eliminate 'bias' in their accounts, often engaging others to check their coding of qualitative data as if there is the possibility of interpreting it 'truthfully' and being encouraged to leave emotional and intuitive responses to research fields 'at the door' in order to avoid them colouring their perceptions.

This seminar challenges both the possibility of working 'objectively' when we conduct research and presents the argument that our subjectivity can enhance our understanding of a field of interest and offer valuable launch points for generating innovative and inclusive insights. Using case studies of research projects undertaken by Professor Ladkin and her PhD students, which have championed this approach, the seminar will reveal the joys of this way of working, as well as the conundrums and paradoxes it evokes.

After the seminar has concluded, Professor Ladkin will lead an expert session workshop, titled 'How Embracing Subjectivity Can Enrich Research Projects'. This workshop will enable those attending to reconsider their own research projects and how they might be enhanced by welcoming, rather than eschewing, subjectivity in their research approach.

The seminar is for an internal audience and will be held on 22 January 2026, 12:30pm, in room LG01 of the Henley Business School building, Whiteknights campus. For those unable to attend in person there is also the option to dial in remotely via Microsoft Teams. If you are interested in joining, please contact Alex Baker on a.j.baker@henley.ac.uk

Members of LOBR faculty may also request to book a one to one meeting with Professor Ladkin. Each appointment will last 30 minutes, between 3:30pm to 4:30pm. Slots are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. To arrange an appointment, please contact Alex Baker on a.j.baker@henley.ac.uk

LOBR research seminars are co-ordinated by Professor Bernd Vogel and Dr Anastasiya Saraeva.