Transforming the present moment through conversation and narrative: Toward a hermeneutic leadership theory

Despite its recent development, research in the discursive leadership paradigm remains fragmentary and needs integrative theories that systematically account for the communicative constitution of leadership. This paper addresses this need by presenting a hermeneutic leadership theory. By extending Ricoeur’s philosophical explication of time, the theory uniquely anchors itself in the present moment of leadership communication. By integrating Ricoeur’s mimetic analysis, Bakhtin’s dialogism, and Fisher’s narrative logic, the theory casts leadership as artful orchestration and facilitation of conversation and collective narrativization through a hermeneutic circle. The theory offers an integrative theoretical lens that deepens our understanding of leadership as a communicative process and contributes to the burgeoning literature on practical leadership and organizational narrative studies.