Leadership without leaders?

Sutherland, N

Abstract

Although there has been growing interest in Organization and Management Studies (OMS) and Critical Management Studies (CMS) in Social Movement Organizations (SMOs) in recent years, there is little research examining the organizational processes of anarchist SMOs which explicitly reject taken-for-granted discourses and practices of institutions, hierarchies and leadership. Furthermore, organizational discourses and practices of leadership in SMOs are comparatively under-researched in the OMS literature, and currently rely on a narrow school of thought. This paper seeks to redress this balance, addressing the specific anti-hierarchical and participative discourses and practices which are employed in an anarchist SMO, with a view to understanding the effect they have on the process of leadership in action. Although certain conceptualizations of leadership are explicitly rejected in the case organization studied, it is also constitutive of how they see themselves in terms of their ideology, identity and meaning- with leadership becoming a collective, participatory process which involves everyone.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: International Conference in Critical Management Studies
• Start Date: Jul 10, 2013
• End Date: Jul 12, 2013
• Acceptance Date: May 1, 2013
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: leadership
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/932157
• Additional Information: Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : International Conference in Critical Management Studies