Managing Without Leadership: Towards a Theory of Organizational Functioning

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.