Distributed leadership in organizations: A review of theory and research

Bolden, Richard

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to review conceptual and empirical literature on the concept of distributed leadership (DL) in order to identify its origins, key arguments, and areas for further work. Consideration is given to the similarities and differences between DL and related concepts including ‘shared’, ‘collective’, ‘collaborative’, ‘emergent’, ‘co-‘ and ‘democratic’ leadership. Findings indicate that whilst there are some common theoretical bases, the relative usage of these concepts varies over time, between countries and between sectors. In particular, DL is a notion that has seen a rapid growth in interest since the year 2000 but research remains largely restricted to the field of school education and of proportionally more interest to UK than US-based academics. Several scholars are increasingly going to lengths to indicate that in order to be ‘distributed’ leadership need not necessarily be widely ‘shared’ or ‘democratic’ and in order to be effective there is a need to balance different ‘hybrid configurations’ of practice. The article highlights a number of areas for further attention, including three factors relating to the context of much work on DL (power and influence; organisational boundaries and context; and ethics and diversity), and three methodological and developmental challenges (ontology; research methods; and leadership development, reward and recognition). It is concluded that descriptive and normative perspectives that dominate the literature should be supplemented by more critical accounts that recognise the rhetorical and discursive significance of DL in (re)constructing leader-follower identities, mobilising collective engagement and challenging or reinforcing traditional forms of organisation.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2011
• Deposit Date: Feb 13, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 19, 2016
• Journal: International Journal of Management Reviews
• Print ISSN: 1460-8545
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-2370
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 251-269
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00306.x
• Keywords: distributed leadership, organizations, theory, research
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/967101
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00306.x
• Contract Date: Sep 19, 2016