Leaderless Management as the Solution to Struggles Over the Moral Center of Healthcare? : Ward Nurses’ Critique of Management as “Real Utopias” in the Public Sector

Summary, in English

Through a historization of the Swedish public sector together with vignettes grounded in interviews, this paper questions managerialism in the public sector. The chapter argues for leaderless management as a shift of attention from managerialism toward worker control. The chapter explores what nurses identify as central areas of conflict shaping their work, and what forms of change they view as necessary to create a more sustainable work situation, for themselves and the patients. Workers—not managers—within the public sector are key knowledge bearers in confronting the crisis of care. Inspired by Nancy Fraser’s idea of a care crisis, as well as Erik Olin Wright’s discussion on real utopia, the chapter analyzes how public sector workers frame their work-life. We use this to frame a vision of leaderless management. Specifically, we draw out three arguments for leaderless management of (1) time, (2) caring, and (3) resources.

• Author: Rebecca Selberg; Paula Mulinari
• Editor: Fredrik Hertel; Anders Örtenblad; Kenneth Mjølberg Jørgensen
• Department/s: Department of Gender Studies
• Publishing year: 2023-01-06
• Language: English
• Pages: 77-95
• Publication/Series: Debating Leaderless Management : Can Employees Do Without Leaders?
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04593-6_5
• Document type: Book chapter
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Topic: Work Sciences; Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISBN: 978-3-031-04593-6; ISBN: 978-3-031-04592-9