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‘Free to Do What I Want’? Exploring the ambivalent effects of liberating leadership

Author

Listed:
  • Hélène Picard

    (EESC-GEM Grenoble Ecole de Management)

  • Gazi Islam

    (EESC-GEM Grenoble Ecole de Management, IREGE - Institut de Recherche en Gestion et en Economie - USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry] - Université Savoie Mont Blanc)

Abstract

This study examines the phenomenon of ‘liberating leadership', an emerging trend promising self-mastery and collective unity, resonating with the literature on post-heroic leadership. We evaluate the claims of liberating leadership from a psychodynamic perspective, using a Lacanian approach. We examine how post-heroic forms of leadership reconfigure symbolic and imaginary aspects of follower identification, with ambivalent effects. Drawing empirically on the case of a Belgian banking department, we trace how a ‘liberating' leader was able to garner intense psychological attachment among followers, accompanied by the ‘dark sides' of personal exhaustion and breakdown, normative pressure to be overly happy, and the scapegoating of contrarian managers representing symbolic prohibition.

Suggested Citation

  • Hélène Picard & Gazi Islam, 2020. "‘Free to Do What I Want’? Exploring the ambivalent effects of liberating leadership," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) hal-02877546, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:gemptp:hal-02877546
    DOI: 10.1177/0170840618814554
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02877546
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    Cited by:

    1. Gazi Islam & Roberta Sferrazzo, 2022. "Workers' Rites: Ritual Mediations and the Tensions of New Management," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(2), pages 284-318, March.

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