Leaderless Management as the Solution to Struggles Over the Moral Center of Healthcare? Ward Nurses’ Critique of Management as “Real Utopias” in the Public Sector

Through a historization of the Swedish public sector together with vignettes grounded in interviews, this paper questions managerialism in the public sector. The chapter argues for leaderless management as a shift of attention from managerialism toward worker control. The chapter explores what nurses identify as central areas of conflict shaping their work, and what forms of change they view as necessary to create a more sustainable work situation, for themselves and the patients. Workers—not managers—within the public sector are key knowledge bearers in confronting the crisis of care. Inspired by Nancy Fraser’s idea of a care crisis, as well as Erik Olin Wright’s discussion on real utopia, the chapter analyzes how public sector workers frame their work-life. We use this to frame a vision of leaderless management. Specifically, we draw out three arguments for leaderless management of (1) time, (2) caring, and (3) resources.