Leading constituted in parallel with less-hierarchical organising

Self-managed and less-hierarchical organizations have recently been subject to a growing interest in organization and management studies (Lee and Edmondson, 2017; Martela and Kostamo, 2017; Martela, 2019; Salovaara, 2017). The interest has been fostered by examples of large organizations, such as Buurtzorg and Morningstar, that have removed hierarchical structures, titles, and changed their meeting routines. The future of work seems to increasingly favor various self-managed ways of organizing and a more participatory approach to leadership. As these self-managed ways of organizing are gradually becoming more common, both academic and managerial interest in redefining leadership has grown. Furthermore, traditional leadership approaches have been criticized for being excessively leader-centric and poorly suited for less-hierarchical organizations, and the need to study alternative, co-constructed aspects of leadership have been emphasized (Crevani, Lindgren and Packendorff, 2010; Raelin, 2011; Denis, Langley & Sergi, 2012). However, to date, research on leadership in self-directed organizations (SMOs) is still relatively scarce and tends to draw from an onto-epistemological understanding, based on which organizations, practices, cultures, communities, organizational actors, and markets exist there to be examined.