A bottom-up perspective on leadership of collaborative innovation in the public sector: The social construction of leadership for disadvantaged city districts in The City of Copenhagen

The thesis investigates how new forms of public leadership can contribute to solving complex problems in today’s welfare societies through innovation. A bottom-up type of leadership for collaborative innovation addressing wicked problems is theorised, displaying a social constructive process approach to leadership; a theoretical model emphasises that leadership emerges through social processes of recognition. Leadership is recognised by utilising the uncertainty of a wicked problem and innovation to influence collaborators’ sensemaking processes. The empirical setting is the City of Copenhagen in which a strategy- and policy-making process is launched by a handful of professionals and a middle-manager with an in-depth knowledge of area-based planning programs in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. The objective is increased coordination across municipal administrations and social housing organizations. A crucial condition for success is iterative leadership adaptation. In conclusion, the thesis finds that specialized professionals are indeed able to develop politically viable, innovative and collaborative solutions to wicked problems; and that such professionals are able to transform themselves into an actual, yet temporary, leadership, fully able to navigate the uncertainties and conflicts that characterise large political organisations.