My spotlight projects have been lying dormant the past few years, as life got in the way. But I always planned to bring them back and today we celebrate the return of the Non-Fiction Spotlight project. For more about the Non-Fiction Spotlight project, go here. To check out previous Non-Fiction Spotlights, go here.
This first new Non-Fiction Spotlight is actually a sequel of sorts to a previous Non-Fiction Spotlight, since back in 2022, I featured Management Lessons from Game of Thrones: Organization Theory and Strategy in Westeros by Fiona Moore. Meanwhile, the subject of today’s feature is Fiona’s latest non-fiction book, where she shares management lessons from The Lord of the Rings.
So I’m pleased to welcome Dr. Fiona Moore back to my blog to talk about Management Lessons from The Lord of the Rings: Organisation Theory, Leadership and Sustainability on Middle-Earth.
Tell us about your book.
Management Lessons from The Lord of the Rings is the management textbook you never knew you wanted, but now you know, you have to have it! Through the lens of Tolkien’s writing, I introduce organisation theory, and then discuss topical issues like sustainable business; equality, diversity and inclusion; and successful leadership. I finish up by discussing how to apply these lessons to your own working life, whether by asking yourself “What Would Sam Gamgee Do?” or getting your project team around the table for a role-playing-game session.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
In my day job, I’m Professor of Business Anthropology at Royal Holloway, University of London. However, I’m also a writer of SF, fantasy and horror, who’s been published in Clarkesworld, Escape Pod, Interzone and other places, and with two novels under my belt. And finally, I also write critical works about cult television, like Blake’s 7, The Prisoner, The Terror and Doctor Who.
I also like cooking and miniature-making, I’m a long-distance runner, and I have two cats who are both splendid-looking creatures and madly eccentric aristocrats.
What prompted you to write this book?
It’s a long journey!
Some years back, I started making my teaching more fun for my students and myself by, rather than using the tried-and-true business studies examples, taking my examples from Game of Thrones. This wound up being a very popular idea indeed, as did the follow-up where I taught a group of undergraduates project management using Rogue One: A Star Wars Study as a case.
Eventually this led to my first book in this area, Management Lessons from Game of Thrones. Which was fun to write, and fun to read, and after it had been out for a while, people started asking if I would do a follow-up on another series.
The Lord of the Rings seemed to be the obvious choice. First, because I legitimately love The Lord of the Rings, if anything more than Game of Thrones. Second, because it has huge resonance with audiences, both within the SFF community and outside it. And finally, because once I started reading it with business in mind, I began to see ways in which The Lord of the Rings could bring new insights beyond the ones in the Game of Thrones book. So I could actually say something new that would get people thinking. And even, maybe, something that has implications beyond simply being a better manager.
Why should SFF fans in general and Hugo voters in particular read this book?
First of all, because if you’re in management (or have a manager), then you will hopefully find some new ways to make a routine job more interesting, fun and exciting, with fantasy. The book has both concrete suggestions, and also some general ideas about how to use your imagination to shake up your working life and make it better.
Perhaps more importantly, though, Tolkien at the moment is being claimed by people who want to use his work to justify surveillance, exclusion, and patriarchal hierarchies. Meaning it’s easy to forget that his work was also about environmental justice, about standing up to inequality, about focusing not on leaders but on the leader-follower relationship. I hope that my book will give people a different perspective on Tolkien, and on how we can learn how to run businesses sustainably and fairly through adopting some of his principles.
Do you have any cool facts or tidbits that you unearthed during your research, but that did not make it into the final book?
According to an interview with Liv Tyler on Reactor, Arwen was originally supposed to be part of the Fellowship in the Peter Jackson movies. Which might not be as much of a departure from the original as one might think; apparently Tolkien thought Elf society would have no designated gender roles (other than ones related to procreation).
Also, Sauron’s tower was inspired by the clock tower at Birmingham University. Which I didn’t include largely because my source is anecdata from Birmingham University colleagues, but once you’ve heard that and seen the clock tower, you really can’t unsee it.
SFF-related non-fiction is somewhat sidelined by the big genre awards, since the Nebulas have no non-fiction category and the Best Related Work Hugo category has become something of a grab bag of anything that doesn’t fit elsewhere. So why do you think SFF-related non-fiction is important?
I think it’s important because fiction doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It was written by somebody, it’s read by other people, and those people use, develop and interpret that work in their own ways. If you’re going to read a classic work of SFF, it can be useful to understand the context it came from; it can also be important to understand what people have made of these works over the years. And I think it can also be important to look at SFF works in different ways and consider how they can affect things outside of fandom.
Are there any other great SFF-related non-fiction works or indeed anything else (books, stories, essays, writers, magazines, films, TV shows, etc…) you’d like to recommend?
Considering The Female Man by Joanna Russ, or, As The Bear Swore by Farah Mendlesohn, which is a really great study that made me think again about one of my favourite books. Jamie Woodcock, at Kings College London, is doing some great things with The Expanse and Andor. I’d also like to highlight the work of Dimitra Fimi, who wrote a book on Tolkien and race that was tremendously useful when developing the current volume and is worth reading for a deconstruction of the “Tolkien was sort of racist, wasn’t he?” question.
Also, the Rankin-Bass animated version of The Hobbit is proof that one can make a tight, 90-minute movie out of that novel, even including song numbers.
Where can people buy your book?
Publisher’s site
Amazon (US):
Google Play
Waterstone’s
Or you can ask any other bookshop to look up ISBN 978 1 04943 065 2 and they will order it for you! FYI, if you’re a US reader and looking for it at Barnes & Noble or Browns, while they don’t carry stock they will get it in if asked– so please ask.
Where can people find you?
My main author website, which is a clearing house for all my links and socials, is https://drfionamoore.com.
My blog is at www.adoctorofmanythings.com (where I review bad movies, make good recipes, and tell travel stories).
I am @drfionamoore at LinkedIn, Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram, TikTok and Mastodon (wandering.shop), but how often I update and/or check messages can be rather variable.
Thank you, Fiona, for stopping by and answering my questions.
Do check out Management Lessons from The Lord of the Rings: Organisation Theory, Leadership and Sustainability on Middle-Earth, which came out earlier this month. There will also be a review of the book by me on File 770, once I recover from the con crud I unfortunately picked up at Vintage Toys of the Universe in Lommel in Belgium.
About Management Lessons from The Lord of the Rings: Organisation Theory, Leadership and Sustainability on Middle-Earth:
This illuminating book uses J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings novels to engage with a number of classic and contemporary management topics. Considering themes such as leadership, sustainability, diversity and inclusion, Fiona Moore emphasises the relevance of classic fantasy works to 21st-century organisations.
Employing examples and stories from Tolkien’s series, Moore outlines basic principles of organisation theory and illustrates how management concepts can apply to organisations of any kind. Chapters relate Tolkien’s notion of stewardship to sustainability management, discuss how to cultivate ‘servant leadership’ and examine The Lord of the Rings as a study in good diversity management. The book concludes by exploring the lessons and personal philosophies readers can draw for their own careers as managers, employees and businesspeople in a changing world.
Management Lessons from The Lord of the Rings is an informative resource for scholars and students of business and management, especially those interested in the relationship of management theory to popular culture. It will also benefit managers and practitioners seeking a greater understanding of general organisational theories.
About Fiona Moore:
Fiona Moore is a BSFA Award winning, WFA shortlisted writer, academic and critic, author of Management Lessons from The Lord of the Rings (out now from Edward Elgar) and the Morag and Seamus series of cozy post-apocalyptic stories.
Her work has appeared in, among others, Clarkesworld, Asimov and Interzone, and she has published two novels, including the BSFA Award-shortlisted Rabbit in the Moon.
She makes miniatures and runs a blog about cooking food from franchise tie-in cookbooks. She lives in London, UK, with two incredibly beautiful cats.
Her new novel Captain Artemis and the Martian Undead will be published by Flame Tree Publishing in summer 2027.
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Are you publishing a work of SFF-related longform non-fiction in 2026 or 2027 and would like to have it featured? Contact me or leave a comment.
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