ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we take some specific examples of how the term ‘leader’ is used to show why the rise and rise in the language of leadership matters. One of the things we suggest is that the title leader (while it is clearly not the whole story) may well have contributed to bosses getting away with huge pay rises – while ordinary workers have had their pay cut and their working conditions made more precarious. We argue this is because the language of leadership seems to be changing the wider cultural climate – making it much friendlier towards the interests of elites. At the same time, the language of leadership is also making the climate increasingly hostile for people who find themselves doing part-time and precarious work: this is the dynamic of flattering the bosses and flattening the workers.
