Zombie Leadership in Nursing: A Critical Discursive Paper

ABSTRACT Aims To examine the persistence of dominant leadership ideas in nursing using the concept of zombie leadership and to explore how these ideas continue to shape nursing discourse, education and practice despite sustained critique. Design Critical discursive paper informed by contemporary leadership scholarship and critical nursing literature. Data Sources Peer‐reviewed nursing leadership literature, policy documents and educational texts, with particular attention to material published over the past two decades. Discussion This paper argues that nursing leadership discourse remains shaped by leader‐centric, individualistic and decontextualised narratives. These zombie leadership ideas persist not because of strong empirical support, but because they are embedded within professional socialisation processes, reinforced by hierarchical healthcare power structures and sustained through the emotional appeal of heroic leadership narratives, particularly during periods of crisis. Together, these mechanisms normalise narrow understandings of leadership and obscure the collective, relational and contextual dimensions of nursing work. Conclusion Zombie leadership provides a useful lens for understanding why problematic leadership ideas endure in nursing. Moving beyond these ideas requires not the replacement of one leadership model with another, but greater reflexivity about how leadership knowledge is produced, circulated, legitimised and taken up in practice. Implications for the Profession and/or Patient Care A more reflexive and collective understanding of leadership may better reflect the realities of nursing work, support nurses' clinical influence and shift attention away from individualised responsibility towards the structural and relational conditions of care. For nursing scholarship and education, this approach encourages critical engagement with leadership discourse rather than the uncritical reproduction of established models. Impact Statement This paper introduces zombie leadership to nursing scholarship as a way of examining why dominant leadership ideas persist despite limited empirical support and ongoing workforce challenges. By shifting attention from the search for better leadership models to reflexive examination of how leadership knowledge is produced, circulated and sustained, the paper offers a novel explanation of leadership's role in shaping nursing work. This perspective has implications for nursing practice, education and policy by challenging individualised and leader‐centric assumptions and foregrounding the collective, relational and contextual realities of care. Reporting Method Not applicable for discussion paper. No Patient or Public Involvement This study did not include patient or public involvement in its design, conduct or reporting.