Zombie leadership : Dead ideas that still walk among us
(2024) In Leadership Quarterly 35(3).- Abstract
Considerable progress has been made in the field of leadership in recent years. However, we argue that this is undermined by a strong residual commitment to an older set of ideas which have been repeatedly debunked but which nevertheless resolutely refuse to die. These, we term zombie leadership. Zombie leadership lives on not because it has empirical support but because it flatters and appeals to elites, to the leadership industrial complex that supports them, and also to the anxieties of ordinary people in a world seemingly beyond their control. It is propagated in everyday discourse surrounding leadership but also by the media, popular books, consultants, HR practices, policy makers, and academics who are adept at catering to the... (More)
Considerable progress has been made in the field of leadership in recent years. However, we argue that this is undermined by a strong residual commitment to an older set of ideas which have been repeatedly debunked but which nevertheless resolutely refuse to die. These, we term zombie leadership. Zombie leadership lives on not because it has empirical support but because it flatters and appeals to elites, to the leadership industrial complex that supports them, and also to the anxieties of ordinary people in a world seemingly beyond their control. It is propagated in everyday discourse surrounding leadership but also by the media, popular books, consultants, HR practices, policy makers, and academics who are adept at catering to the tastes of the powerful and telling them what they like to hear. This review paper outlines eight core claims (axioms) of zombie leadership. As well as isolating the problematic metatheory which holds these ideas together, we reflect on ways in which they might finally be laid to rest.
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- author
- Haslam, S. Alexander ; Alvesson, Mats LU and Reicher, Stephen D.
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Great man theory, Leadership, Leadership theory, Transformational leadership, Zombie leadership
- in
- Leadership Quarterly
- volume
- 35
- issue
- 3
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85184723385
- ISSN
- 1048-9843
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.leaqua.2023.101770
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 8bc0bb16-e2f3-450e-ba26-8bb3a8b7eadb
- date added to LUP
- 2024-02-29 14:10:10
- date last changed
- 2024-09-22 19:13:55
@article{8bc0bb16-e2f3-450e-ba26-8bb3a8b7eadb,
abstract = {{<p>Considerable progress has been made in the field of leadership in recent years. However, we argue that this is undermined by a strong residual commitment to an older set of ideas which have been repeatedly debunked but which nevertheless resolutely refuse to die. These, we term zombie leadership. Zombie leadership lives on not because it has empirical support but because it flatters and appeals to elites, to the leadership industrial complex that supports them, and also to the anxieties of ordinary people in a world seemingly beyond their control. It is propagated in everyday discourse surrounding leadership but also by the media, popular books, consultants, HR practices, policy makers, and academics who are adept at catering to the tastes of the powerful and telling them what they like to hear. This review paper outlines eight core claims (axioms) of zombie leadership. As well as isolating the problematic metatheory which holds these ideas together, we reflect on ways in which they might finally be laid to rest.</p>}},
author = {{Haslam, S. Alexander and Alvesson, Mats and Reicher, Stephen D.}},
issn = {{1048-9843}},
keywords = {{Great man theory; Leadership; Leadership theory; Transformational leadership; Zombie leadership}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Leadership Quarterly}},
title = {{Zombie leadership : Dead ideas that still walk among us}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2023.101770}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.leaqua.2023.101770}},
volume = {{35}},
year = {{2024}},
}