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Distributed Leadership in Organizations: A Review of Theory and Research
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The aim of this paper is to review conceptual and empirical literature on the concept of
distributed leadership (DL) in order to identify its origins, key arguments and areas for
further work. Consideration is given to the similarities and differences between DL and
related concepts, including ‘shared’, ‘collective’, ‘collaborative’, ‘emergent’, ‘co-’ and
‘democratic’ leadership. Findings indicate that, while there are some common theoretical
bases, the relative usage of these concepts varies over time, between countries
and between sectors. In particular, DL is a notion that has seen a rapid growth in
interest since the year 2000, but research remains largely restricted to the field of school
education and of proportionally more interest to UK than US-based academics. Several
scholars are increasingly going to great lengths to indicate that, in order to be ‘distributed’,
leadership need not necessarily be widely ‘shared’ or ‘democratic’ and, in order
to be effective, there is a need to balance different ‘hybrid configurations’ of practice.
The paper highlights a number of areas for further attention, including three factors
relating to the context of much work on DL (power and influence; organizational
boundaries and context; and ethics and diversity), and three methodological and
developmental challenges (ontology; research methods; and leadership development,
reward and recognition). It is concluded that descriptive and normative perspectives
which dominate the literature should be supplemented by more critical accounts which
recognize the rhetorical and discursive significance of DL in (re)constructing leader–
follower identities, mobilizing collective engagement and challenging or reinforcing
traditional forms of organization.
Richard Bolden - Personal Name
NONE
Distributed Leadership in Organizations: A Review of Theory and Research
Leadership
English
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