Managing Without Leadership

A critical examination of leadership theories past and present Managing without Leadership argues that leadership as traditionally understood does not explain organizational functioning. Bounded by empiricist assumptions and methodology and including a narrow theory of mind as symbol processor leadership theories are unable to support their claims about leaders and their actions. Drawing on coherentist epistemology connectionism and the theory of self-organizing dynamic systems a naturalistic account of organizational functioning and organization design is explored that includes leaders as non-privileged agents in the cognitive fabric of organizational life.