Staying with the trouble: What do the frontline need to do to be recognised as leadership actors?

Abstract

This Leading Questions piece puzzles over why frontline leadership appears little understood, recognised and drawn on in both leadership studies and organisation practice. It draws on a series of empirical ‘breadcrumbs’ to craft a pathway to understanding the frontline in leadership. It argues that such leadership is porous with resistance through a theorisation built from the construct of trouble, active ‘troubling’ of management imperatives and troubles talk. It concludes by asking a series of broader questions about organisational resisting and leading through the unique lens of the frontline who bring both into a different conversation.