ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we examine the basic nature of the employment relationship and argue that there is conflict at the heart of this relationship. This conflict arises because bosses (as representative of owners) and workers often have fundamentally opposing aims. Maximizing profits almost inevitably means extracting extra value from workers – and at least for some increased insecurity and worsened conditions. The traditional terms ‘manager’ and ‘worker’ tacitly acknowledge such conflict and a divergence of interests. In contrast, the language of leadership seeks to make the workplace into a kind of ‘Santa’s workshop’, where everyone below the leader is imagined (against common-sense) to be a happy elf. We also develop some of the ideas in the opening chapters to speculate on why ‘leadership’ has become the routine way in which we talk about the exercise of power, authority and influence in organizations. We show how this state of affairs is not just absurd or ridiculous, but also dangerous. It is dangerous because, most basically, the language of leadership glosses over sources of contest and resistance.
