Det er skam ikke ledelsen det er galt med, men skam i lederskabet der er svært

Abstract

When leaders experience shame, they are emotionally affected. It can either be fear of losing position, power, or legitimacy, or even worse, losing self-esteem, motivation and job satisfaction. There are many reasons that we must pay attention to shame when it appears in organizations. It is necessary that we talk about shame. When shame in leadership is repressed, rejected, or ignored, it becomes an obstacle to good authentic leadership. Shame is universal and ubiquitous and still, despite its prevalence, rarely openly acknowledged. The word shame comes from the meaning of “cover up” and is defined as an unpleasant feeling of humiliation or guilt, caused by the awareness of having done something wrong or embarrassing. Shame is a physiological felling that triggers the blush, lowered head and slumped shoulders, pain in the stomach, downward gaze and frantically search for a place to disappear. When shame is not handled by those who have responsibility and power, it gets unimpeded access to the meetings of the executive board and conference with doctors or the nurses. Shame in organizations can negatively affect our motivation leading to low morale and poor productivity. Leaders (doctors and nurses) at Danish Hospitals, must deal with the risk of complaints and public shaming during their leadership. Despite these terms of leadership, the existential leader wants to take care of the employees, as well as being an authentic leader at work. This thesis examine how shame appears in the authentic, transformational leadership in top leaders in the Danish hospital system. How are shame and power linked in leadership and what kind of defensive strategies do leaders turn to, when they experience shame. The empirical data used for the analysis is obtained through five semi-structured interviews with leaders from large public hospitals in Eastern Denmark. The analysis is divided into four themes. These are the concept of shame, shame in leadership, shaming and shame in the violence of emotions (defense strategies). The findings of this thesis involve many stories of shame faced by leaders in their authentic, existential leadership. The leaders themselves experience being shamed by their superiors. The presence of shaming others, generate feelings of shame when leaders are unable to use their power and stop the shaming. On the other hand, shame is not only negative, but also have a positive side as a reflexive emotion. It encourages the leaders to think about importance, core beliefs and values. Leaders may feel loneliness in their leadership and uses their network when in need of talking freely about shame, loneliness, and the role of leader. They are aware of the wicked problem, between power and shame, being implicit in their leadership. When facing shame they use strategies as attack self, attack others, avoidance, and withdrawal. Leaders are aware of shame, but shame is rarely openly acknowledged.