Leadership of Collaborative Innovation in the Public Sector: An Engaged-Scholarship Ethnography

The organizational phenomenon studied in this chapter is leadership of collaborative innovation. I approach this phenomenon of leadership by exploring the constructionist nature of leadership in a local-government setting. I explain how this perspective on leadership was inspired by a three-year ethnographic study by means of engaged-scholarship ethnography. In particular, I illustrate the implications of using such an ethnography—namely, identifying uncertainty as the main explanation for leadership construction.
The chapter is structured as follows. First I present the organizational phenomenon studied and subsequently describe my analytical approach. Next I explain the methodology used and give two empirical examples. Finally I reflect upon how the organizational ethnography deployed has contributed to existing knowledge of collaborative innovation leadership and touch briefly on the methodological implications of this approach.