We explore how collective leadership drives performance in organisations

– When I teach organisation studies, I usually ask students who comes to mind when they think of a leader. They often mention well-known business executives in the tech sector, or political icons such as Martin Luther King Jr. They rarely think of the more low-key managers they encounter in their everyday lives, or their peers in a self-leading team.

What interests you most as a researcher?

– Above all, I am interested in the role of leadership, and in critically analysing that role within organisations and society. The term critical is important. It involves interrogating how leadership is commonly understood and practiced. Leadership can be a problematic concept—it is bound up with the idea of a heroic leader who will save us. This idea can make us feel disempowered.

What do you want to convey to your students?

– That leadership is a field full of contradictions and often shaped by our imagination. Leadership is associated with inspiration, vision, and the power to see into the future: someone uniquely equipped to create success. But this is often a myth, perhaps a dangerous one. What matters is how we all work together in organisations and in society more generally.

In my teaching, we look at what really happens in leadership practice – we go beyond the popular images of leadership. I ask my students to reflect on how real-world leadership matches or diverges from different ideals of leadership. That’s when I find bringing academic research into teaching truly exciting.

We discuss different ways of organizing and enacting leadership in organizations, such as responsible leadership and collective leadership. Everything I try to do is about finding ways to engage students and encourage them to ask questions. They should dare to criticise, challenge, and problematise.

Why should students choose Stockholm University?

One of the benefits is the opportunity to study programmes in which organisation, society and politics are closely connected. Many study programmes are interdisciplinary, for instance the Master’s programme in Management, Organisation and Society, or the Bachelor’s programmes in International Business and Politics and in Business Ethics and Sustainability. Students are exposed to a range of academic approaches, allowing them to broaden their perspectives and develop a more expansive understanding of complex issues.

Regardless of the organisations they will work in after graduation, we want students to reflect on what different styles of management and leadership contribute to society, and how they affect the world at large.