Beyond the Brotherhood: Exploring Communal Leadership in Masculinity Contest Cultures

This phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of formal and informal leaders who exercise communal leadership, characterized by collaboration, inclusion, and relational focus, within the masculinity contest cultures of law enforcement and the fire service, where strength, competition, and hierarchical leadership often rule the day. Through in-depth qualitative interviews with 19 participants across the United States, this research investigates how and why leaders choose to challenge organizational norms, how they perceive the effects of their decisions on themselves and others, and how they navigate the tensions and contradictions between communal leadership and hypermasculine cultural expectations. The findings reveal that leaders employ communal approaches as a way of living out their personal values, either as a lifelong practice, or after an inflection point causes them to reject hypermasculine ideals and embrace a more nurturing approach. Communal leadership manifests as shepherding behaviors, like investing in relationships, demonstrating vulnerability, creating psychological safety, and protecting others from organizational toxicity. Leaders who exercise this kind of leadership in masculinity contest cultures often face severe costs, such as social isolation, professional marginalization, and intimidation as their practice of leadership is perceived to violate deeply entrenched workplace values and power dynamics. This study contributes to the understanding of communal leadership as organizational resistance in hypermasculine workplaces and offers practical implications, such as redefining strong leadership to include emotional awareness, courageous vulnerability, and authentic conversations; implicating senior leadership in coaching, mentoring, and modeling communal practices, and constructing systems of support for individual leaders who challenge hypermasculine values by exercising human-centered leadership.

Committee
Beth Mabry, PhD, Chair

Fayth Parks, PhD

Angela Workman-Stark, PhD

LINK: https://antioch.zoom.us/j/640371973 (Defense Room #1) MEETING ID: 640 371 973

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