The Dancing CEO. New Perspectives on the Leader: Performer, Chief Happiness Officer or Seducer?

Abstract

In February 2015, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO of the LEGO Group, invited the national and international press to a financial briefing at the company's headquarters in Billund (Denmark). 2014 had been an exceptional year of growth for the LEGO group. Nevertheless, most of the journalists present in the room were surprised when the Danish CEO suddenly began to dance in front of the audience while singing ‘Everything is awesome’ from the LEGO Movie. Why did he do it? Was it out of spontaneous joy? Or was there a strategy behind his actions? And what were the reactions of the media and LEGO employees? What can a CEO who is dancing and singing for a few seconds or minutes in front of a group of journalists tell us about leadership roles and leadership communication? The aim of this chapter is to provide plausible answers to these questions. We combine theory of dancing with three different approaches to the study of leadership: (1) a strategic approach: the CEO as a Performer, (2) a positive organizational scholarship approach: the CEO as a Chief Happiness Officer and (3) a critical approach: the CEO as a Seducer. At the end of the chapter, we discuss how this small case study can contribute to a broader understanding of strategic communication that includes a dramaturgical and multimodal perspective.

Citation

Frandsen, F. and Johansen, W. (2020), "The Dancing CEO. New Perspectives on the Leader: Performer, Chief Happiness Officer or Seducer?", Verčič, A.T., Tench, R. and Einwiller, S. (Ed.) Joy (Advances in Public Relations and Communication Management, Vol. 5), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 155-168. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2398-391420200000005011