First Frankfurt Leadership Lecture: Zombie Leadership

Abstract

The contemporary organizational and political landscape is dominated by Zombie Leadership: ways of thinking about power and influence that have been repeatedly debunked but which nevertheless resolutely refuse to die. These valorise individual traits and qualities, power over others, and heroic ideas of influence and change. Zombie Leadership lives on not because it has empirical support but because it flatters and appeals to elites, to the leadership industrial complex that supports and protects them, and also to the anxieties of ordinary people in a world seemingly beyond their control. In the process it also erodes democracy by positioning the public as powerless onlookers. The talk presents identity leadership as an empirically grounded antidote to zombie leadership that prioritizes shared social identity, group-based relationships, and collective goals. However, it also recognises that overcoming Zombie Leadership requires more than just more empirical evidence. It also requires identity leadership on the part of researchers, practitioners and policy makers — to collectively reimagine and remake the leadership landscape and the toxic worlds that it creates.

The speaker

Alex Haslam is Professor of Psychology and Laureate Fellow at the University of Queensland. He has written 16 books and over 350 peer-reviewed articles exploring the contribution of group and identity processes to social and organizational functioning — with a particular emphasis on leadership and health. His recent books include The New Psychology of Leadership: Identity, Influence and Power, The New Psychology of Health: Unlocking the Social Cure and The New Psychology of Sport and Exercise. Alex has received a range of major awards from scientific bodies around the world — including recognition for distinguished contributions to psychological science from both the British and Australian Psychological Societies. In 2022 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for service to the field of psychology.

Date: Wednesday, 28 October 2026

Venue: Room SKW A, Building Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaften (SKW), Campus Westend, Goethe University Frankfurt 

Time: 6:15–7:45 p.m.

Participation is free.