Leading a Professional Service Firm Without Formal Managers - An explorative study of the co-created leadership model at Centigo

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was to in depth study and describe a leadership model in a Professional Service Firm. This is important since the society is becoming more knowledge intensive and information intensive, a fact that is strengthened by the increased number of knowledge intensive firms. This has created a need for new leadership models, which challenge the traditional leader-centric view on leadership. The study has a social constructionist approach to leadership, which means that leadership is viewed as socially constructed through relationships in a social network. The Swedish consultancy firm Centigo communicates that they apply collective leadership and that everyone at the firm is a leader, why the firm is a suitable case in order to in depth study and describe a leadership model. It was found that Centigo's leadership model is co-created. Furthermore, it was found that the organisational structure, the fundamental principles and the core values provide an effective guidance for the consultants and steer how the leadership model is played out in practice. It was concluded that this is the reason for why formal managers are not needed in Centigo's organisation. The risk of that the consultants misinterpret the leadership model was found to be the main factor that makes the leadership model vulnerable. An important implication of Centigo's leadership model is that the consultants conduct tasks that are generally associated with a formal manager. Thus, in Centigo's leadership model everyone is not only a leader at Centigo, but also a manager.