The (non)distribution of leadership roles: Considering leadership practices and configurations

Abstract

This article draws on distributed leadership and leadership-as-practice perspectives to report on a comparative case analysis of leadership configurations. The context of acquisitions is used in the study. Attention is given to the practices of members of the two leadership teams – one from each of the acquiring and acquired organizations – as they attempted to integrate their practices and redistribute leadership roles. The findings show that, despite expectations that distributed leadership would be achieved, the emergent configurations varied across the firms and consisted of distributed leadership, distributed leaderlessness, overlapping leadership and non-distributed leadership. These configurations were underpinned by members’ framings, relational practices and (non)exercise of agency. The article contributes to the leadership literature by proposing the notions of leadership deficits and leadership surpluses in configurations, by exploring how ambiguous leadership spaces are constructed, and by providing evidence of leadership models that vary in terms of conflict tractability. The study uncovers the limits of distributed leadership and shows that not all is well with distributed leadership models. The article also contributes to a broader understanding – than has been achieved through extant literature – of various potential leadership configurations that can emerge in the case of acquisitions and beyond.