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Portrait of Mats Alvesson. Photo.

Mats Alvesson

Professor

Portrait of Mats Alvesson. Photo.

Zombie leadership : Dead ideas that still walk among us

Author

  • S. Alexander Haslam
  • Mats Alvesson
  • Stephen D. Reicher

Summary, in English

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.

Department/s

  • Organizational Studies

Publishing year

2024

Language

English

Publication/Series

Leadership Quarterly

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Business Administration

Keywords

  • Great man theory
  • Leadership
  • Leadership theory
  • Transformational leadership
  • Zombie leadership

Status

Epub

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1048-9843