Understanding Shared Leadership for Team Creative Output: A Qualitative Study using WhatsApp

Abstract

This research adds to our understanding of the concept of shared leadership in the context of team creativity, by looking into the details like - which leadership roles should be shared, and how these roles should be shared in terms of role multiplexity and dynamism. Taking the ambidexterity perspective at the team level, we propose that the task focussed leadership roles of Organizer (convergent in nature) and Challenger (divergent in nature) should be present in a team working on creative tasks. To support this research, we conducted a qualitative study through Whatsapp (a smart phone chatting application) with teams of working professionals in Singapore. We focussed on team processes in order to understand how the different leadership roles should be shared. The findings suggest that in terms of role multiplexity, the Challenger role should be exercised by all the members of a team and the Organizer role can be exercised by one member. In terms of role dynamism, our findings suggest that the Challenger role should be shared at the same time by all the members during the divergence processes. For the Organizer role, it is important that this role is exercised effectively by one member at a time through the convergence and the progression to completion processes.