debating leaderless management: can employees do without leaders?

Management research has traditionally assumed that leaders play an essential role in both public and private organizations and are required for a business to run smoothly. However, more recently, a vein of critical research has claimed that leaders can do more harm than good, creating confusion and putting their reputation before production and employee wellbeing. This book asks the question - what would happen if there were no leaders? Would employees be better off without formal (or informal) leaders? And even if such a utopia were desirable, would it be realizable in practice?

Frederik Hertel is Associate Professor of Organization, Communication and Management at Aalborg University Business School, Denmark. He has published articles on Leadership, Everyday Creativity in Organizations, Educational Anthropology, Philosophy of Management and Organizational Communication. He worked for 10 years in public organizations as a project manager and head of development before returning to academia.

Anders Örtenblad is Professor of Working Life Science at the School of Business and Law, University of Agder, Norway, and Professor II at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway. He is the editing founder of the book series Palgrave Debates in Business and Management, for which he recently edited the following titles: Debating Equal Pay for All: Economy, Practicability and Ethics and Debating Bad Leadership: Reasons and Remedies.

Kennet Mølbjerg Jørgensen is Professor of Organization Studies at the Department of Urban Studies, Malmö University, Sweden. His research interests comprise storytelling, ethics, learning and power in organizations. Kenneth has authored, co-authored and edited numerous books, articles and book chapters on diverse topics such as business ethics, management education, sustainability as well as critical research methodology.