Minding the Gaps in Managers’ Self-Realisation: The Values-Based Leadership Discourse of a Diaconal Organisation

Abstract

Work is an important source of meaning for managers in modern organisations. This article explores a leadership discourse in a diaconal organisation and aims at analysing managers’ notions of self-realisation. Based on a case study of a Norwegian diaconal hospital, the article answers the following research question: What characterises managers’ self-realisation within the leadership discourse in a diaconal organisation? The findings foreground how managers emphasise individuation through pro-social values, draw on the hospital’s distinct leadership discourse when addressing dilemmas and connect values to core work. However, the managers are also marked by individualisation in that they adopt elements from a generic leadership discourse, where managerial work is a means to launch their own potential, express personal ideals and foster individual development. The article discusses how self-realisation in this diaconal organisation primarily emerges as individuation rather than individualisation, which is prominent in generic leadership discourses. These two categories of self-realisation intersect within the hospital’s predominant values-based leadership discourse.