Distributed leadership and Sunzi’s Art of Warfare

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article addresses the prominent critiques of distributed leadership and offers an alternative leadership approach. Focussing on the criticisms of limited empowerment and abuses of power in distributed leadership, this study turns to an ancient Chinese classic, Sunzi’s Art of Warfare (Sunzi Bingfa). Sunzi posits that leadership is distributed in accordance with shi (strategic advantage), and is manifested through the principle of contextual noninterference, as well as moral personhood and management. Rejecting the dominant understanding of power as tied to one’s position and is a zero-sum game, power in shi is circumstantial, dynamic and changeable. The ideal leader, according to Sunzi, eschews misrule by modeling virtue and empowering others to collectively promote the well-being of the people. The paper further recommends that school leaders enact contextual noninterference by knowing the environments, and cultivate moral personhood and management by knowing oneself and others.