Reflexive Leadership Mats Alvesson Lund University Cass Business

Reflexive Leadership Mats Alvesson, Lund University, Cass Business School & University of Queensland

Reflexivity: ambitious efforts to consider alternatives to, and challenge, your (tribe’s) assumptions and perspective * Meaning (and meaninglessness) of leadership * Actually practiced leadership (what happens here? ) As seen by manager/leader and sub. s/followers * Limits and alternatives to leadership * Vertical and horizontal relations at work

Leadership A sexy signifier? - Managerial work/management Top people (function, group) Influence Group collaboration (shared L. )

Leadership • (Parts of) organizational relations & practices • Ego booster/legitimation/language for managers – identity project • Career opportunity for academics ”Cut concepts down in size so that they cover less and reveal more” (Geertz 1973)

Need to specify leadership (a maddening concept) ”Management can get things done through others by the traditional activities of planning, organizing, monitoring and controlling - without worrying too much what goes on inside people's heads. Leadership, by contrast, is vitally concerned with what people are thinking and feeling. . . (Nicholls, 1987: 21)

Not much leadership Many years of in-depth studies of leadership (”leadership”): The great disappearance act (Alvesson & Sveningsson LQ, OS, HR 2003) "In particular I have noted the lack of leadership, whatever that is, but instead noted the image of a world class leadership. In reality it seemed like the most successful managers just were engaged in internal meetings with other managers. Leadership is . . . like something you mostly are talking about. Preferably in grand pompous terms. Everyone seems to be leadership oracles when they are asked to assess themselves. " (Engineer in a global industrial equipment company)

Ambiguity and double-talk/acting of leadership Leadership: heroic, good … preached more than practiced – but not much ’followership’ • You talk (and fantasize) leadership and practice management (convincing, nagging, appealing …)

Studies of ‘leadership’ • • Q: What do you do (senior managers)? A: I do leadership. I am a leader. Q: What does it mean? A: I work with strategies, developing people, values, visions, corporate culture. Q: What do you do in practice? A: I sit in meetings. Admin (budgets, IT, personnel issues, allocation of offices, reporting) Q: What about leadership? A: I don’t have time.

Leader / follower • Leadership is an identity enhancer (often a shaky one) • Followership is not. - Calls for a Big person compared to yourself - Means a dwarfing of yourself Followership: identity, autonomy and time costs

Very little serious research on leadership Few in-depth studies of leadership (practice, relation, interaction): Interviews with superiors and subordinates plus observation of relations and interaction.

Beyond leadership/follower reductionism • Broaden the perspective, sharpen vocabulary • How is leading/managing/organizing done?

Organizing work: Vertical forms Leadership • • Persuasion/influencing Interpersonal influencing process in an asymmetrical relationship, targeting meaning and values. Leader and follower Inspirational talk/behaviour in order to give direction, meaning and emotional and/or moral support. Exemplary behaviour. Management • • Legitimate authority Direction and control based on formal rights and hierarchy. Manager and subordinate Planning, budgeting, supervision, schedules/rules/guidelines, and performance control/evaluation. Exercise of power • • Anxiety Authority based on force and/or political skills. Dominant and less dominant actor in a power game Shows authority, use threats and sanctions, promising rewards, mobilizing group pressure, use of client/patron networks.

Organizing work: Horizontal forms Network (Peer) influencing Persuasion/advice Guidance and support from peers (outside one’s own work group/organizational unit). Respected and receptive colleagues informal contacts/ad hoc-problem solving. Informal meetings outside work meetings, lunches, etc. Group work Persuasion/mutual adjustment or group pressure Guidance and support from members of the work group. Responsible and responsive team members Co-decision making, team meetings and mutual adjustments on a daily basis. Autonomy Competence Self-directed work processes. Autonomous professional Thinking for yourself, setting own standards, planning and evaluating your own work and performance. Reading and reflection reinforcing self-confidence and good judgment. Alvesson, Blom & Sveningsson: Reflexive Leadership. Sage 2017

6 M model (modes of organizing) Leadership Autonomy Management Teamwork Power Networks/Peer influencing

Vocabulary • Leader, manager, superior, shared … • HIPs and LIPs High/low influencing person, position or process • MIPs (medium – team work, horizontal influencing) • Hold back leadership talk – unless you are lazy

Social dynamics and negotiations • Reflection Dialogue/power struggle Modes of organizing Leadership, management, power, autonomy, group, network Feedback Revisions

Misalignment at work. Too much leadership ambition • “The managers I struggle with most are the ‘motivating’ types, who try to create energy and momentum, but only move back and forth without keeping a clear direction. ” A senior software developer in a high-tech company about his manager’s leadership: • “So far there haven’t been any problems with George” (Blom & Alvesson: Leadership on demand, Scandinavian J of Managemnt 2014)

Conclusion • Leadership is a minor part of organizing • Much talk (& ideology), less practice & significance • Organizations a mix of various forms of vertical and horizontal organizing, including leadership • Identify and work with the mix (6 M): theoretically but also practically • Create shared understandings of modes of organizing

Also: The Stupidity Paradox