Language games: a productive metaphor for discursive research?

This paper lays the analytic framework for ongoing research into the use of the term “leadership” by practitioners of Agile project management. Taking inspiration from Wittgenstein’s entreaty to “struggle against the bewitchment of our understanding by the resources of our language” (2009, p. 52, §109), we might operationalise his notion of “objects of comparison”. Synthesising work from critical discourse analysis, and narrative analysis, we detail a proposed framework through which we might examine the diverse – potentially divergent – ways in which language furnishes us with a depth grammar through which we articulate self, other and world. At conference, we will draw upon publicly available ‘experience reports’ (a form of autobiographical reflective text) produced by practitioners of the Agile project management methodology to unpack the amorphous notion of ‘Leadership in Agile teams’. The paper concludes with reflections on the method’s potential as a means for opening dialogue with practitioners.