Wendy Bilgen

In this autoethnographic account, I explore through creative analytic practice (CAP) how autoethnography has become a practice for spiritual connection. Inspired by Martin Buber’s I-Thou philosophy, I discuss how autoethnographic encounters have the potential to emulate what is characterized by Buber as encounters with an Eternal Thou. In Buber’s conceptualization, when an individual I encounters a Thou, in a dialogical relationship of mutual honor and embrace of shared humanity, an Eternal Thou encounter is experienced. The qualities of the I-Thou encounter are mirrored in autoethnography as the autoethnographer (I) and the reader/participant (Thou) share a numinous, sacred, spiritual exchange. Processes inherent to autoethnographic work enable the conditions wherein the sacredness of I-Thou encounters are nourished. I invite the reader to wonder with me about the ways that authentic, vulnerable, and critical engagement with one’s own story paves the way for I-Thou experiences to b...

Qualitative research approaches had been embraced by leadership scholars since the 1980s when Boyle and Parry introduced autoethnography to the field of leadership studies in 2007. 1 Despite the reality that autoethnography is grounded in the qualitative research tradition and shares its methodological strengths with other qualitative methods, acceptance was initially ambivalent due to its self-focused orientation. 2 To draw upon the researcher's personal experience as primary data, autoethnography utilizes self-reflection, meaning "reliving and rerendering [about self]: who said and did what, how, when, where, and why," and self-reflexivity, meaning "finding strategies to question our own attitudes, thought processes, values, assumptions, prejudices and habitual actions, to strive to understand our complex roles in relation to others." 3 This initially "underexplored, undertheorised and, above all, undervalued" self-focused method is gaining attention among leadership scholars. 4 Growing numbers of published autoethnographies attest to this rising trend in leadership scholarship. In this article, we will discuss autoethnography as a self-originated, dialogical, and contextual process, followed by a brief review of published leadership autoethnography and recommendations for its future use.

... Cennet Engin Demir Zeynep Hatipoglu Sümer Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey Sharrie Danielson Trinity Christian School Shelly DeVries Istanbul ... intent to stay on the assignment has been clearly established (Black & Stephens, 1989; Caligiuri, Hyland, Joshi, & ...