Abstract
Through a critical literature review, the study analyses the influence of leaders’ sensory and emotional experiences on shaping their capacity to navigate contradictions and tensions inherent in complex organisational environments. By engaging with concepts of embodied perception, multisensory engagement, and aesthetic judgment, the article highlights how these factors contribute to leaders’ decision-making processes and their ability to foster creative resolutions in paradoxical situations, offering a phenomenological perspective that emphasises the importance of leaders’ subjective experiences in managing organisational complexity. The article answers the following research questions: 1) How do subjective aesthetic experiences (including sensory perceptions and emotional responses) influence leaders’ decision-making processes and ability to manage organisational paradoxes and complexity? 2) How do embodied perception, multisensory engagement, and aesthetic judgments enhance the efficiency of dialectical leadership in resolving tensions and fostering creativity within organisations? The article concludes by underlining its limitations and proposing future research directions.