Vaiennettu huono johtaminen: kunta-alan johtamisen diskurssien kriittistä tarkastelua

Abstract

Silenced bad leadership: A critical study of municipal leadership discourses This qualitative study compares the views of subordinates and leaders about bad leadership in Finland’s municipalities. The material of the study includes a study report, representing the subordinate discourse, and seminar proceedings, representing the leader discourse. During the seminar, the two discourses meet and collide. This article describes and analyzes the discourses and the consequences of their encounter. The main results are fourfold: first, the representations of bad leadership, discursively presented by leaders and subordinates, are different. Subordinates tend to emphasize the role of the leader, while leaders consider the context (including the subordinates) as the main explanation for bad leadership. Secondly, bad leaders do not exist in the leader discourse. Instead and thirdly, leaders represent themselves as victims of contextual factors: the dual context of the municipal manager enables the leader to withdraw from the challenges of the operative context. Finally, the victim representation is used both to legitimize bad leadership and to silence the related subordinate discourse. Limitations and suggestions for further study are discussed. Key words: bad leadership, discourse, discourse analysis, municipality, silence, legitimization