Shared Leadership Approach Research Articles

Understanding the Dynamics of Board-Executive Director Relationships in Nonprofits: A Qualitative Study of Youth-Serving Nonprofits in Utah

A functional positive relationship between the executive director (ED) and the board of directors (BOD) is crucial to nonprofits meeting their missions. The present qualitative study sought to identify factors—including traits, behaviors, processes, and experiences—associated with positive relationships between BODs and EDs in youth-serving nonprofits in Utah. Surveys were utilized to identify pairs (N = 6) of board chairs and EDs who had high relationship satisfaction. Individual semi-structured interviews were employed with each participant. Transcripts were analyzed using two-cycle coding, descriptive and pattern coding in which three themes emerged: (1) Background; (2) Roles; and (3) Leadership. The findings illustrated effectively harness individuals’ professional experiences and skills and can provide essential support and mentoring to the ED. Furthermore, interviews with ED–Board Chair (BC) pairs revealed that holding similar values and motivations for serving and leading in the organization fed into harmonious partnership models and a supportive collaborative environment. A shared leadership approach, guided by set roles and responsibilities and solidified with trust and open communication, resulted in EDs and BCs being satisfied with their counterparts and how their organizations were operating. Findings can guide nonprofits in developing, maintaining, and evaluating relationships and processes related to leadership in nonprofits.

Exigency of Centering Equity in Educational Leadership Development

I am an example of a transformed higher education administrator. In this essay, I describe how my journey to an education doctorate impacts my work as a scholar-practitioner in higher education. The CANDEL program challenged what I thought I understood about the status quo in higher education with respect to race, socio-economic impacts, meritocracy, grit, and assumptions we make about students. The coursework and cohort model confronted my own biases and were foundational to my dissertation questions. Conducting my research on university leadership at my home institution gave me an opportunity to develop a shared equity leadership approach to solving complex problems. Equity-focused work in higher education is a long-game, ongoing, and essential to addressing the challenges facing our institutions. Without this, inequities experienced by faculty, staff and students will persist. The education doctorate and its scholar-practitioners are important drivers in shifting the American educational landscape.

Shared Leadership and Employee Satisfaction in China: A Multiple Correspondence Analysis of Gender and Education Aspects of Participative Leadership Models

The relevance of researching on modern management approaches is today´s dynamic labor market’s demand for flexible leadership models, such as shared leadership, to attract talents in companies by meeting employee´s requirements of more participation in management tasks. This paper aims for the investigation of gender and education level related influences on attitudes toward shared leadership and employee satisfaction in a Chinese cultural context for a better understanding of possible limitations of shared leadership. Shared leadership is mainly explored with a focus on its origins in North America, the study of shared leadership in the Chinese culture is underrepresented. This quantitative research is conducted through an online survey, distributed by WeChat, involving 103 Chinese employees, with 39 women and 64 men, 34 years old on average, in a manufacturing work environment to approve the industry relevance. The convenience sampling ensures a high level of trust and data quality of the respondents regarding sensitive information about employee satisfaction and attitude toward shared leadership. Only existing, validated questionnaires were used. The survey regarding employee satisfaction is based on Spector (1985). The survey regarding attitude toward shared leadership is based on Small (2007). The results are evaluated by their means, standard deviations, correlation analysis and multiple correspondence analysis. Statistical analysis is performed by XLSTAT. The first hypothesis (H1), suggesting a clustering effect by gender and education level on shared leadership’s scope, is not significantly confirmed by the correlation analysis. The multiple correspondence analysis raises suspicions about men exhibiting higher employee satisfaction and a more negative attitude toward shared leadership than women. Individuals with a bachelor’s degree tend to display ambivalent attitudes toward shared leadership. The second hypothesis (H2), proposing a positive correlation between attitude toward shared leadership and employee satisfaction, is not confirmed by the correlation analysis. No significant correlation is found among the variables for the entire sample of Chinese respondents. The third hypothesis (H3), proposing an ambivalent attitude of Chinese employees toward shared leadership, is confirmed by the calculated mean score within the survey by Small (2007). There are potential reasons for this ambivalence, e.g. suggesting a conflict between traditional and modern values in China. This paper recommends a deeper understanding of ambivalent employee satisfaction at work to enhance the effectivity and efficiency of planned leadership changes. Tailored leadership training should be designed to align with the preferences of these specific target groups. Future research directions could focus on strategies for persuading team members to embrace a shared leadership approach. Additionally, exploring the reasons behind negative attitudes toward shared leadership paves the way for further research, such as examining potential connections with hierarchical power structures.

Intersectoral leadership on family planning programme performance: A prospective longitudinal study

Background: There had been no research on shared leadership at the team level in diverse organisation. Aims: This study aimed to investigate the effect of shared intersectoral leadership on family planning programme’s performance. Method: This was an observational study with a prospective longitudinal time series design. This study distributed questionnaires to 30 teams which were taken by simple random sampling to provide agreed answers. The measurement of the impact of shared leadership on performance was carried out three times. Linear regression was then used to analyse the data. The shared leadership team qualified as adequate. Result: The beta coefficient value indicated that shared leadership had a strong impact on the team’s performance of the family planning programme with a value of 0.817 - 0.824 (p = 0.000). Conclusion: Once the shared leadership approach is effectively utilised, the team performance of family planning programmes will improve.

Leading organisational change in the workplace: a review of the literature

Implementing change is an integral component of the professional activity of a veterinary nurse. However, the drivers for change in the industry are often accompanied by restraining forces, highlighting the importance of effective leadership and change management. A review of the literature has identified that effective leaders demonstrate particular behaviours and hold certain values, and a shared leadership approach is essential for the implementation of change to be successful. Many veterinary nurses already demonstrate successful leadership behaviours in their day-to-day work, and by following a model of change, could be better placed to successfully implement change in their clinical practice. Literature specific to veterinary nursing leadership and change management remains limited and highlights a requirement for further research and studies in to this area.

School leadership that supports health promotion in schools: A systematic literature review

Objective: Schools are important settings for health promotion. In schools, children and adolescents can be reached regardless of their social background, which represents a unique opportunity for promoting health. Several studies have demonstrated the importance of school leadership in initiating and sustaining health promotion; however, efforts to systematically review the influence of school leadership on school health promotion are still lacking. Hence, this paper analyses empirical studies published in scientific journals on school leadership and health promotion in schools. Design: Systematic literature review. Method: Informed by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines, a review was conducted using two main databases: Web of Science and Scopus, which retrieved 51 eligible articles. Results: The review of these articles resulted in the identification of seven main themes – school leaders’ health; attitudes, knowledge and behaviour; accountability; support from school leaders; shared leadership approaches; capacity building and parent engagement. Conclusion: This systematic literature review expands the literature by highlighting the school leadership factors that promote school health promotion in Oceania, Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Asia continents. Future systematic literature reviews could explore studies and different aspects of health promotion by teachers, especially in the Asian context.

Participatory Communication and Shared Leadership: The European Project Learning Leadership for Change (L2C)

Abstract Schools are a complex system made up of not only relationships, infrastructures, and challenges, but also constraints. It seems essential that schools, as complex organizations, work in synergy, according to a shared vision with all the actors involved in the educational process. School management is now part of a process that is increasingly implemented in a shared way; a single person in charge cannot manage the complexity that the school requires. In order to observe and narrate this complexity, the National Institute of Documentation, Innovation, and Educational Research (INDIRE) has carried out several research projects in recent years that focus on the analysis of school leadership. In particular, the European project Learning Leadership for Change (L2C) aimed to promote and support the experimentation of a shared leadership approach in some strategic areas for schools. The results of this project highlighted the importance of the lighthouse leaders in implementing shared leadership, whose main function is to involve all school actors keeping the community active and growing. These more informal teams do not remove the need for the so-called formal intermediate management structures. It is also essential for the shared leadership approach to create sharing networks that include local and regional strategic partners to reinforce the sustainability of these innovative practices.

Linking shared leadership with pharmaceutical team sales performance in Pakistan: a dual mediation model

PurposeThe pharmaceutical retail industry faces leadership challenges, emphasizing the importance of a mechanism to support sales managers. This paper aims to demonstrate how shared leadership (SL) might improve team performance (TP), with knowledge sharing (KS) and psychological safety (PS) serving as dual mediation effects.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used social learning theory (SLT) to support their hypotheses. Using a purposive sampling technique, 440 respondents (65 leaders and 375 team members) from 65 pharmaceutical sales teams in Pakistan were obtained through data collection from dyad sources. The authors also used partial least square-structured equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS 3.3.9 to assess the measurement model and the direct paths testing. The authors also used PROCESS macro version 4 to examine dual mediation effects.FindingsThe results revealed that SL does not directly impact TP; rather, it depends on the dual mediating mechanisms of KS and PS.Originality/valueThis is an initial attempt to establish a conceptual model based on SLT, with KS and PS acting as dual mediation mechanisms. This research contributes to the current knowledge of team leadership by concentrating on how SL approaches might promote TP in the pharmaceutical sector.

Unleashing the Power of Athlete Leadership Groups: Strategies Perceived to Leverage the Potential of Shared Leadership in Professional Football Teams

Coaches of professional sports teams frequently adopt athlete leadership groups in their quest to gain a competitive advantage. Although the benefits of shared leadership approaches are well established, the sharing of leadership with athletes is never straightforward with little in the way of guidelines to assist coaches with this process. The current study provides insight into the strategies perceived to leverage the strengths of this shared leadership approach in professional football teams. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 16 coaches and 14 athlete-leaders from 17 professional teams, across four football leagues. An inductive thematic analysis generated five high-order themes: (a) player-owned team values and behaviors linked to accountability, (b) player-driven values-based athlete leadership group selection, (c) authentic and appropriate empowerment, (d) strong intrateam relationships, and (e) expert facilitation and dedicated leadership development support. Results illustrate teams are more likely to realize the potential of athlete leadership groups when coaches pay careful attention to the preparedness, social identity-based group influence processes, expert facilitation, and ongoing leadership development support required for shared leadership. Findings suggest that establishing high levels of trust and progressively and authentically empowering athlete-leaders within clearly defined parameters based on a mutually agreed behavioral framework may mitigate risks commonly associated with player empowerment-based leadership models.

Collective achievement, cohesive support, complementary expertise: 3Cs emergent model for shared leadership

ABSTRACT Society is asking for a shared leadership approach to deal with diverse, complex, and dynamic situations. Existing studies on shared leadership, however, lack clear theoretical analysis and/or sufficient empirical evidence. To fill this research gap, this article first clarifies conceptual ambiguities regarding shared leadership. Second, inspired by social exchange theory (SET) and emergence theory on team cooperation, it proposes a novel model, 3Cs, to characterize shared leadership through three dimensions: collective achievement leadership, cohesive support leadership, and complementary expertise leadership. This model explains how macro-level shared leadership phenomenon emerges through micro individual behaviours, and is compatible with but more concrete and comprehensive than the current understanding of shared leadership in either a composition form (i.e., team members perform homogeneous leadership behaviours) or a compilation form (i.e., team members perform heterogeneous leadership behaviours). A mixed-methods approach combining a qualitative study on 12 international graduate students in a leadership programme and a quantitative study on 86 leaders and 370 team members from Chinese enterprises was conducted to confirm the validity of the proposed model. This model provides human resource development (HRD) professionals with a comprehensively practical approach regarding how to develop shared leadership.

Qualitative study of a Korean elite university soccer team from a vertical leadership and shared leadership perspective

ABSTRACT This study analyzes the leadership behaviours that have helped shape a successful university soccer team in Korea. More specifically, the research focuses on both vertical and shared leadership in a team. To gain an in-depth understanding of how the ‘Y team’ could have had so much continuous success over an eight-year period, this study uses a total of 16 semi-structured interviews with athletes and coaches. The study showed some first insights that the team can generate excellence even without top-ranked players when operating under a combined vertical and shared leadership approach. Useful implications for current and future soccer coaches exploring how to develop and implement various leadership behaviours were addressed.

Improving nonprofit succession management for leadership continuity: A shared leadership approach

AbstractThe topic of nonprofit succession management has gained increasing research attention in recent years. However, the organizational implementation rate of succession management is often low – and even where present, may be mere “lip service.” Previous studies in the field mostly focus on the role of boards or executive directors in succession management. Grounded in shared leadership theory, this study takes a broader perspective, and stresses the shared responsibilities among boards, executive directors/division executives, and human resource (HR) professionals within the succession management process. As such, the study's framework comprises three components: shared leadership, the succession management process, and nonprofit leadership continuity as an outcome variable. The results of a large online survey in Germany (N = 1020) show that only 12.3% of responding nonprofit organizations in Germany practice tripartite shared leadership in succession management. However, applying partial least squares analysis indicates, for example, a positive relationship of shared leadership behavior among boards, executive directors/division executives, and HR professionals with the likelihood of a systematic succession management process, as well as nonprofit leadership continuity. Reflecting on our findings and current threats to nonprofits, such as COVID‐19, we conclude by offering practical implications for nonprofit decision‐makers and for academia. Among other things, we argue that nonprofit practice should push for more (tripartite) shared leadership to improve succession management and leadership continuity.

Medical Leadership: Experiences in the Use of Shared and Parental Leadership to Improve Academic Performance in the Management of a National Plastic Surgery Unit in China.

Effective leadership is an integral component for optimal academic performance of surgical units. As one of the leading plastic surgery academic medical centers in China, the authors would like to share their experiences of using the combined parental and shared leadership approach in managing their surgical staff within the department. It has taken into account the essence of Eastern moral philosophies and Western leadership theories. The authors performed a review of the academic development of their staff and changes in the academic productivity of the department between 1999 and 2018. The difference between the first 10 years (1999 to 2008) and second 10 years (2009 to 2018) was analyzed to assess the effectiveness of the authors' leadership approach. There is an increase in the number of Science Citation Index articles published in the past decade with a higher impact factor and more articles published in international journals. The timing to promotion was on average 8.4 years. The average age of promotion to consultants has increased, likely because of a later start in the training. With similar average age, prior education, and gender ratio of surgeons in the unit, the department also received 14 times more in research funding and four times more in national key topic research topic. The effective application of this combined leadership approach has significantly improved the academic productivity and quality of the authors' residents and surgeons and the academic advancement of the unit.

Moving Strategic Leadership Further: An Analysis of Strategic Shared Leadership and Firm Performance

Supervisory theories of leadership have identified a trend towards less hierarchical leadership structures in organizations, which put the concept of shared leadership into focus. Accordingly, the strategic leadership of the organizations has also already started to adopt more horizontal decision-making processes and introduced strategic shared leadership. Strategic shared leadership defines the process of sharing strategic decisions at the top management level and becomes especially important in today's complex work setting. In this study, we theorize that a shared leadership approach needs to complement the strategic leadership of a firm by its top management to cope with an increasingly complex and uncertain work environment, and to exploit the advantages of a shared decision-making process in this context. To probe our theorizing, we derive a text-based measure of strategic shared leadership and identify how and under which conditions strategic shared leadership shapes firm performance. We analyze the 10-K annual reports of 7,668 publicly listed firms in the U.S. between 1994 and 2017. Results of regression analyses support our theorizing that strategic shared leadership increases firm performance and, furthermore, show that this effect is contingent upon internal and external characteristics of the firm. Precisely, high managerial ability and high market dynamism increase the strategic shared leadership-firm performance relationship.

Integrating Formal and Shared Leadership: the Moderating Influence of Role Ambiguity on Innovation

This research seeks to integrate traditional formal leadership structures and emerging shared leadership approaches to team leadership to examine how they jointly relate to innovative outcomes in teams. To reconcile contradictory theory and research that views formal leadership as both beneficial and detrimental to informal leadership, we take a contingency-based approach and hypothesize and find that a designated, nominal formal leader is positively related to shared leadership emergence when role ambiguity is high. Additionally, high role ambiguity enhances the indirect effect of designated formal leadership on team innovation via shared leadership. Alternatively, low ambiguity neutralizes the effect of designated formal leadership on shared leadership and the indirect effect on team innovation via shared leadership. These findings help to address conflicting perspectives regarding the linkage of formal leadership and shared leadership and their respective influence on team innovation.

Opportunities for Leadership Expression in a Learning Organization

Opportunities for Leadership Expression in a Learning Organization

Developing an Organizational Mission Statement in Youth Sport: Utilizing Mad Libs as a Novel, Shared Leadership Approach

Sport organizations often utilize mission statements as “road maps” to guide the design and delivery of sport to youth. In the present work, we utilized a novel technique and sought out the perspectives of multiple stakeholders to craft a mission statement for an elite youth volleyball club on the east coast of the United States. Prior to the competitive season, a subset of club administrators (n = 3) head coaches (n = 6), parents (n = 10), and athletes (n = 11) participated in Mad Libs, a phrasal word game in which individuals are asked to fill in missing words in a prescribed, written story template. Key mission-relevant words were left blank, and beneath each blank was a prompt such as “noun (what the club should provide)”, “verb (what the club should do)”, or “adjective (kind of partnerships the club should build).” Participants completed stories individually, and responses were synthesized using content analysis. We then crafted a three-sentence mission statement and shared it with club stakeholders at a preseason meeting. The mission statement was adopted by the club and guides the direction of the club and its members. Importantly, our work highlights a novel technique, informed by a range of stakeholder perceptions and experiences, that can be used to craft an organizational mission statement in elite youth sport.

Promoting children’s play in Calgary, Alberta: A case study of collective impact and municipal leadership

ABSTRACT Play is key to healthy childhood development, yet, there is growing international concern around decreasing opportunities for children to engage in unstructured, outdoor play. While municipalities are well-situated to take a leadership role in developing play-friendly cities, there is a paucity of practice-based examples describing the process. Together with practice partners from The City of Calgary, the Alberta Parks and Recreation Association, and The Government of Alberta Ministry of Culture and Tourism, we used a case study method to explore how The City of Calgary used a collective impact model to promote and support local play opportunities, specifically by initiating the creation of a Calgary Play Charter. We describe the preconditions that supported the initiation of a collective impact process and identify facilitators (e.g., leveraging existing resources) and challenges (e.g., sustaining long-term engagement, power differentials) to municipal leadership across the three core phases the collective impact process. The findings demonstrate the impact of a shared leadership approach, and provide direction and key learnings for municipal leaders interested in creating local play opportunities. The findings could also inform policies and practices at the provincial/state or national levels to bolster local efforts that support and promote play.

How do mid-senior multinational officers perceive shared leadership for military teams? A qualitative study

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the military team members’ (mid-senior multinational officers’) perceptions of shared leadership and analyze the facilitation of shared leadership in military teams.Design/methodology/approachThe sample size was 20 interviewees that participants must hold leadership positions at the mid-senior management level and from NATO member countries. To analyze the data, the authors used Gioia’s thematic analysis methodology (Gioiaet al., 2013) and manual coding rather than computer usage for the analysis, due to the small data pool and their proficiency in literature.FindingsComplexity and the new information era force military organizations toward the change and that with shared leadership they can even change the organization’s culture. The final framework highlights five main dimensions that emerged from mid-multinational military officers’ experience: driving forces of change, triggers to shared leadership, specific cases shared leadership, operational team environment and operational team characteristics. Results of the study supported that driving forces of change comprised the primary factor affecting shared leadership in military project teams.Practical implicationsThe Headquarter environment (strategic and operational planning) and planning were critical factors for the successful implementation and development of shared leadership in military project teams. Thus, military organizations could easily implement the shared leadership approach in the military research teams and planning teams.Originality/valueThe authors present a framework of leadership change context for military teams, which depicts how shared leadership could be implemented differently in military teams.

University leadership development: lessons from Ukraine

The article is a follow-up analysis of Ukraine Higher Education Leadership Development Programme that ran in Ukraine 2016 – 2019 and was a joint initiative of the British Council in Ukraine, United Kingdom Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, Institute of Higher Education of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine and Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. The article is rooted in insights, observations and reflections of Programme implementers and participants, as well as incorporates conclusions of the impact report put forward by an external evaluator of the Programme. The authors of the article conclude that university leadership is important for precipitating change at an individual, institutional and sectoral levels in Ukraine’s higher education sector and that currently available resources and existing capacity in university leadership development within the sector are sufficient to sustain and advance university leadership development. The authors argue that shared leadership approach has proved its effectiveness during the Programme; they propose to further apply shared leadership as a means of responding to numerous challenges faced today by Ukraine’s higher education sector.
 In addition to review of lessons learnt from three phases of Programme implementation, the authors generate recommendations for advancement of university leadership at institutional and sectoral levels within Ukraine’s higher education, like: unfolding discourse on university leadership at institutional and sub-institutional, sectoral and national levels; mainstreaming university leadership into all HEI activities, including teaching and learning, research, governance and management, student self-government, international cooperation etc.; facilitating inter-university cooperation, knowledge exchange and sharing; involving students into university leadership discourse and practice; launching a campaign to promote establishment of a privately funded foundation or endowment on university leadership development.