1171801
research-article2023
OSS0010.1177/01708406231171801Organization StudiesTourish and Willmott
Article
Despotic Leadership and Ideological Manipulation at Theranos: Towards a theory of hegemonic totalism in the workplace
Organization Studies 2023, Vol. 44(11) 1801–1824 © The Author(s) 2023 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions https://doi.org/10.1177/01708406231171801 DOI: 10.1177/01708406231171801 www.egosnet.org/os
Dennis Tourish
University of Sussex Business School, UK
Hugh Willmott
Bayes Business School (City, University of London) and Cardiff Business School, UK
Abstract This paper addresses despotic leadership and ideological manipulation in the workplace, and explores their detrimental consequences for employees and other stakeholders. The notion of ‘hegemonic totalism’ is advanced to account for how employees are often subordinated to the will of powerful elites. Our argument is illustrated through a case study of Theranos, a high prolife Silicon Valley biotech company that promised a revolution in healthcare diagnostics but which was declared bankrupt in 2018. Its once muchfeted founding CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, has been sentenced to eleven years in prison for fraud. Analysis of empirical material on the company illustrates how business leaders may engage in despotic practices, while simultaneously invoking apparently positive ideals to enforce the performance of consent by employees. Following an exploration of the paradoxes and pathologies of hegemonic totalism, our study identifies three primary countervailing forces that act to limit its effects.
Keywords despotic management, entrepreneurship, hegemony, power, resistance, Theranos, toxic leadership
Introduction Our paper explores how despotic leadership and ideological manipulation is combined in business organizations to achieve a heightened state of control that we characterize as ‘hegemonic totalism’. This phenomenon is situated in the context of contemporary capitalist work organizations, where organizing labour power to create a product or deliver a service involves not only ‘technique[s] of
Corresponding author: Dennis Tourish, University of Sussex Business School, Jubilee Building, Brighton, BN1 9RH, UK. Email: D.J.Tourish@sussex.ac.uk