Inaugural Lecture: The Elusive Fascination: Leadership in Professional Organizations 

With Laura Empson  

Date: November 13, 2025.14.00 -16.10
Location: Copenhagen Business School, Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, in Room SPs07 

How do you study an elusive phenomenon in an ambiguity-intensive context? Laura Empson looks back on her 30 years of doing just this. Throughout, Laura has been inspired by her fascination and frustration with leadership in professional organizations, where autonomy and ambiguity are extensive, and authority is elusive and contingent. At the start of her career, Laura recognised that the topic of leadership was largely neglected by scholars of the professions and that mainstream leadership research had failed to address the distinctive challenges of leadership among professionals. So, Laura has sought to build a body of theory into leading professionals, contributing to the emerging and increasingly significant field of collective leadership theory. In parallel, Laura has maintained a deep and often challenging commitment to engage and impact, working closely with professionals to translate her leadership theories into practical action. She looks to future research, as growing organizational uncertainty amplifies the twin challenges of elusiveness and ambiguity for leaders of professional organizations, and the scholars who study them.

Biography
Laura Empson is the Professor of Leadership and Organization at the Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School, University of London. She also holds Research Fellowships at both Harvard Law School and the University of Cambridge. Laura's research focuses on professionals and the professions, with a particular focus on their leadership and governance. In 2025, she was ranked in the global 2% of researchers, according to Stanford University's "Leading minds in science" rankings ,and has been nominated for the Thinker's 50 Leadership Award. 

https://www.cbs.dk/en/research/departments-and-centres/department-of-organization/staff/professor

 Preliminary Program: 
Welcome by Head of Department, Carsten Greve
Speech by Deputy President, Inger Askehave
Inaugural lecture by Laura Empson 
Reception with snacks and beverages by the IOA kitchen at the 4th floor in Kilen

Registration for the lecture is necessary, and you can sign up here