Leah Tomkins – författare

Engaging with some of the most debated topics in contemporary organizations, Health at Work: Critical Perspectives presents a critical, contingent view of the healthy employee and the very notion of organizational health. Drawing on expressions such as ‘blowing a fuse’, ‘cracking under pressure’ or ‘health MOT’, this book suggests that meanings of workplace health vary depending on how we frame the underlying purpose and function of organization. Health at Work takes some of the most powerful and taken-for-granted discourses of organization and explores what each might mean for the construction of the healthy employee. Not only does it offer a fresh and challenging approach to the topic of health at work, it also examines several core topics at the heart of contemporary research and practice, including technology, innovation, ageing and emotions. This book makes a timely contribution to debates about well-being at work, relevant to practitioners, policy-makers and designers of workplace health interventions, as well as academics and students. This book will be illuminating reading for students and scholars across management studies, occupational health and organizational psychology.

Engaging with some of the most debated topics in contemporary organizations, Health at Work: Critical Perspectives presents a critical, contingent view of the healthy employee and the very notion of organizational health. Drawing on expressions such as ‘blowing a fuse’, ‘cracking under pressure’ or ‘health MOT’, this book suggests that meanings of workplace health vary depending on how we frame the underlying purpose and function of organization. Health at Work takes some of the most powerful and taken-for-granted discourses of organization and explores what each might mean for the construction of the healthy employee. Not only does it offer a fresh and challenging approach to the topic of health at work, it also examines several core topics at the heart of contemporary research and practice, including technology, innovation, ageing and emotions. This book makes a timely contribution to debates about well-being at work, relevant to practitioners, policy-makers and designers of workplace health interventions, as well as academics and students. This book will be illuminating reading for students and scholars across management studies, occupational health and organizational psychology.

In this innovative addition to the New Horizons in Leadership Studies series, Leah Tomkins explores Franz Kafka’s expertise in the exercise of power, emphasising his own work as a leader. Through extensive primary research and original translation, she combines literary and philosophical critique with analysis of contemporary figures to craft a manifesto for leadership relations.The book begins by using six of Kafka’s best-known stories to examine six prominent models of leadership, including authentic, relational and transformational leadership. Tomkins then discusses what these interpretations tell us about the tactics of good and bad leadership, particularly in relation to communication of the truth. This is relevant for leadership across the ages, but especially for a ‘post-truth’ world where facts are often overpowered by fictions and fantasies.Providing a unique perspective on one of the most prominent writers in the modern canon, this book offers profound insights for scholars and students of leadership, language, discourse and literature. It will delight Kafka enthusiasts and prove enlightening reading for all those interested in the politics of leading and misleading in a digital age.

Why does it matter that our leaders care about us? What might we reasonably expect from a caring leader, and what price are we prepared to pay for it? Is caring leadership something 'soft', or can it be linked to strategy and delivery? International scholars from the fields of ancient and modern philosophy, psychology, organization studies and leadership development offer a strikingly original debate on what it means for leaders to care.At a time when the challenges of leadership are rarely out of the headlines, this ground-breaking work takes us beyond the demand that leaders should be competent at what they do, and into the moral and emotional politics of their influence on others. Debates include the costs of caring both too much and too little, the connections between care and feelings, how care affects the self, and caring leadership as collective responsibility.A key resource for scholars and practitioners in leadership and management, cultural studies, sociology and politics, this book offers an exciting, multi-disciplinary perspective on one of the most fascinating topics in contemporary leadership debates.