Shared Leadership: Reframing the Hows and Whys of Leadership

Citation

Vallaster, C. (2004), "Shared Leadership: Reframing the Hows and Whys of Leadership", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 111-113. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730410512822

Shared Leadership is an edited volume of 14 papers, including a detailed introduction that describes the historical backdrop for the text. The central focus of mainstream leadership literature is the persistent focus around an individual and his or her relationship to subordinates or followers. The editors take the position that the organizational complexity and ambiguity that managers face calls for distributing the tasks and responsibilities of leadership up, down, and across the hierarchy. As such, the who and where of leadership needs to be shifted towards the group as it can no longer be only the leader's task to make strategic decisions and then to influence and to align the rest of the organization to implement these decisions successfully.

Pearce and Conger define shared leadership as an activity, “as a dynamic, interactive influence process” (p. 1) of social interaction. What Hosking (1988) labels a “processual” perspective has only recently entered the study of leadership. Hunt and Dodge (2000, p. 443) emphasize that incorporating the temporality dimension for analysis and “tracing the path or how one moves from the observations at one period to those at the next” would add beneficial insights into the understanding of leadership. Therefore, the editors’ intention to challenge the mainstream understanding of leadership as a socially constructed content, leaving constructive processes relatively unexplored, is to welcome greatly.

In the papers presented in this volume, the authors apply a range of different fields to the concept of shared leadership, including leadership, organizational behaviour, psychology, and teamwork. These papers are interesting in and of themselves, therefore the reader is encouraged to sift through the articles as special interest demands.

In Part I, the authors draw on different conceptual models of leadership in order to show how shared leadership may advance contemporary leadership understanding. Fletcher and Käufer (Chapter 2) use a theory of relational interactions, i.e. Stone Center Relational Theory, and articulate the how of leadership by focusing on the skills and ability required to create conditions in which collective learning can occur. Rooted in transactional and transformational leadership, Cox et al. (Chapter 3) develop a conceptual model of the role of shared leadership in new product development teams. By integrating literature on team dynamics, they develop a battery of testable propositions. In Chapter 4, Seers et al. revisit the theoretical basis and advances of role making, by referring to the principles of social exchange theory and expectation states theory. A strong cognitive approach is adopted by Burke et al. (Chapter 5) who present a framework that serves to guide their thinking on the role of shared cognition has in shared leadership. Suggesting a set of research propositions, their paper forms the foundation for an approach to research in a rather neglected, but important area of team effectiveness. Highlighting that the organizational intervention of empowerment fits the notion of shared leadership, Houghton et al. (Chapter 6) introduce SuperLeadership as a tool to facilitate shared leadership.

In Part II of the book, the contributors discuss methodological issues regarding shared leadership research. One chapter is devoted to the development and preliminary validation of a team multifactor leadership questionnaire, based on a qualitative and quantitative approach to research. The review‐of‐historical‐underpinning‐theme runs strong. Seibert et al. (Chapter 8) carry it forward, providing an extensive account for what shared leadership means if linked to the group exchange approach. Also, Mayo et al. (Chapter 9) present social network analysis and use a hypothetical set of data to show the topography of shared leadership on a team level.

Of particular value is Part III. Chapters 10‐12 present cogent arguments, research evidence as well as significant anecdotal evidence drawn from business firms and the military regarding the practical applicability of shared leadership with which many practitioners and academic researchers would agree.

In the final Part IV, Locke (Chapter 13) withdraws from hyping the notion of sharing and aims to provide answers to the question “What is it that should be shared, by whom and with whom?” He attempts to balance the duality top‐down vs. bottom‐up leadership models by describing what should be, at least in part, shared and what should not be shared. This suddenly appearing critical viewpoint surprises the reader but certainly is taken in. Discussing potential research opportunities of shared leadership, Conger and Pearce (Chapter 14) close their book.

Shared Leadership presents a major contribution in advancing contemporary understanding of leadership. However, I would have liked to see more discussion on the influence of structure on leadership. Within organizations there are always a number of different contexts in which leadership meanings are constructed. As an entity, organizations hence develop and legitimise acceptable modes in dealing with leadership issues. Through their structure they provide leaders and their followers with templates which help to recognize and interpret certain actions and which offer concrete leadership codes (Burla et al., 1995). However, the ways in which group and organizational structures are produced and reproduced over time has attracted only very limited attention. Linking this to the individual and interpersonal dynamics in leadership actions and their interaction over time still needs to be recorded in contemporary leadership research.

In conclusion, I think the book offers greatest value to students and academics who aim to better understand the phenomenon of leadership. It may be necessary to point out that it is not a “how to” book for managers or consultants who do leadership work in organizations. Nevertheless, after reading this book you will be pleased by its enlightening and provoking nature.