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Frank Mei­er

Associate Professor

Emner
Beslutningstagning Bestyrelser Forandringsledelse Ledelse Offentlig forvaltning Organisation Projektledelse Uddannelse Diskurs Kvalitativ metode Socialt ansvar

Primary research areas

Leadership and societal transformation

Leadership and leadership studies are facing new demands by grand, societal transformations, whether in the shape of crisis - e.g. climate, geopolitics, pandemics - or in the shape of policy or strategic change - e.g., digitalisation, automation, diversity and cost-reduction. Leadership is supposed to lead in different ways - to address, strategize, aliviate, explore and exploit - these transformations and may itself change as it relies on or is being hollowed out by the very same transformations as perhaps in the case of automation

Novel leadership theorizing

I address these societal transformations via several theoretical vantage points, e.g., responsible leadership, adaptive leadership, leadership in interaction or the communicative constitution of leadership as well as through a great variety of empirical opportunities.

Leadership development

Leadership development is an integral and logical part of the research portfolio and via interactional studies, I try to detail how learning takes place in leadership and management education settings.

I explore leadership in the real world to instigate dialogue and reflection with practitioners. Ideally, I register how leadership practitioners themselves understand and react to the societal and organizational transformations and follow how these reacti

Turning leadership studies towards societal transformation 

I am a leadership scholar with a particular focus on how societal changes, often understood as changes in stakeholders’ expectations to leadership, are handled in the leadership process. With the leadership process, I mean the way organizational influence processes play out between organizational members. My theoretical platform – the communicative as constitutive approach - means that I have a distinct opportunity to understand the leadership process as a dialogic accomplishment which, for instance, takes place during otherwise perhaps uneventful meetings. 

My research contributes to  

- Turning leadership to face societal transformation rather than tired and opaque ‘psychological processes’ or the even less credible ‘personality traits’. 

- New ways of thinking leadership theory beyond the tired research interview into interactions and communication going on the organization 

- A realization, that more-than-human beings – e.g. ideas, ideals, technology, futures and pasts – play a role in the leadership process  

- A renewed understanding of responsible leadership if these more-than-human beings also have a voice, in which case what is usually called nature or tech suddenly gets a voice in the leadership process 

- New ways of designing and delivering leadership development as more-than-human beings turn up and participate in programs as well as in the leadership process 

On the level of impact, I contribute to 

- Teaching and course development at CBS Executive Education programmes like Master of Public Governance and Master of Business Development as well as the Norwegian Master in Knowledge Management 

- My broader engagement in management education, in which field I for example currently am vice-chair in the Norwegian national evaluation of 11 master programmes in leadership 

- Various leadership development engagement outside CBS like CBS Executive Foundation, the leadership course with Postgraduate Programme in Orthodontics at the University of Copenhagen. 

Outside activities

Valuing Invisible Work (VIEW), 2020–2024

The collaborative project Valuing invisible work (VIEW) sought to understand efficiency ambitions and digitalization projects in practice and was funded by the Independent Danish Research Council, 2020-2024. The project focussed on the crafting and circulation of promissory documents such as digitalization strategies and business plans and on the new tasks that arise with digitalization. The was to investigate and theorize the ‘invisible work’ involved in digitalization projects, including how it is ascribed meaning and valued.
Link to WETO

Leadership Development in the Public Sector , 2014–2018

Leadership and 'personal leadership' are today seen as crucial conditions for the welfare state to be able to fulfil its tasks. At the same time, management development is seen as an important condition for management to be able to meet expectations. In recent years, therefore, massive investments have been made in management development programmes – both in the form of internal organizational programmes and in the form of actual management training aimed at public sector managers. Despite the widespread investment in leadership development, it is not known what organizational effects the leadership development programs have. Studies of leadership development programs typically focus on individual participants' performance in terms of competencies. On the other hand, this project will investigate the organizational effects of the development programs. What practices and beliefs do the programs form and communicate in relation to the welfare state's organizations? What do these practices and notions mean for the relationship between managers and employees and for the performance of the organizations' tasks? To answer these questions, the project will examine both the content/pedagogical practices of leadership development programmes and their organizational significance. The project will use discourse, case and survey methods. An internal organizational development programme and a diploma programme have been chosen as cases.
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