Leadership· 2026Q1
What if Bergson and Einstein’s dispute regarding time had become a dialogue? Towards leadership as temporal becoming
- 0citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Leadership theories may have evolved differently if Henri Bergson and Albert Einstein had dialogued on time, potentially emphasizing 'temporal becoming' over objective measurement.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Current leadership theories are rooted in an Einsteinian concept of time as objective and measurable.
- A dialogue between Bergson and Einstein could have fostered leadership theories centered on 'temporal becoming'.
- Reconsidering time through Bergson's lens offers new ways to theorize leadership processes and contemporary challenges.
- This philosophical shift has significant implications for leadership research methodologies.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Our dominant understandings of leadership are underpinned by implicit assumptions about time that can be traced back to Einstein’s view of time as an objective and measurable phenomenon, whose objectivity depends on relational frames of reference. How might leadership theories have developed differently if Bergson, a prominent philosopher, and Einstein, a leading physicist, had engaged in dialogue rather than competition over their views of time? This paper attempts to respond to this question. It first teases out the assumptions of time ingrained in our dominant understandings of leadership. It then explains how a Bergsonian theorisation of time calls for taking temporal becoming seriously in our understandings of leadership, reconsidering how the process of leadership and contemporary leadership issues might be theorised differently, while also drawing out the methodological implications of such a shift. The paper concludes by arguing that a dialogue between Einstein’s and Bergson’s seemingly contradictory views of time is not merely an exercise in comparison, but it functions as a reflective practice that enriches our understandings of leadership.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Leadership, 2026 · DOI ↗
Continue with a free account
Ask the paper: 3 free questions a day about this paper; save it, get its citation, new summaries every day for your field. Takeaways are Premium.
Continue free on the webSign in with Google or Apple; no card needed. You come back to this paper.
On your phone:
Field: Philosophy
PhilosophyArts and Humanities