Open seminar: Reflexive leadership

Leadership is a popular theme and often seen as the key driver behind effective organisation and the solution to all sorts of problems, from unmotivated employees to psychosocial work environment problems. But leadership is quite complex and is often a mixed blessing in organizations, including the perpetuation of immature, leader-dependent followers. Leadership ideas, ideals and practices need to be critically scrutinized. Vertical as well as horizontal alternatives to leadership need also to be considered: management, power, groups, peer/network support, (professional) autonomy.

The talk emphasizes the need for a critical, reflexive approach to leadership, where managers and subordinates consider a variety of modes of organizing.

Mats Alvesson is a professor at School of Economics and Management in Lund. His focus areas are leadership, functional stupidity in organizations and experiences of bureaucracy and managerial work in universities. He is often seen in the media as a sometimes provocative and controversial debater.

The talk is based on Alvesson, Blom & Sveningsson:  Reflexive leadership, Sage 2017. (Swedish translation published by Studentlitteratur)