The document discusses distributed leadership, which focuses on leadership as a collective social process rather than individual attributes. It is defined as sharing out leadership across an organization. Distributed leadership has benefits like positive change, high performance, and engagement, but also challenges like lack of accountability and resistance to change. In education, distributed leadership can create opportunities for change, teamwork, and strengthening leaders through roles and professional learning communities.

1. Distributed
Leadership
Lindsey Carlton
Department of Curriculum and Instruction,
Angelo State University
EDG 6363 Leadership
Dr. Bethany Edwards
November 4, 2022

2. Defining Distributed Leadership
● Bolden (2011) describes distributed leadership as “ a shift
in focus from the attributes and behaviors of individual
‘leaders’ to a more systemic perspective whereby
‘leadership’ is conceived of as a collective social process”
(p. 2).
● Hartly (2007) summarizes this definition of distributed
leadership, which is “essentially about sharing out
leadership across the organization” (p. 203).

3. History of Distributed Leadership
● Known as the post-heroic shift in focus on the view
of leadership (Broden, 2011, p. 2).
● The concept was rejected and recently has come
back into leadership opportunities (Broden, 2011, p.
4).
● Distributed cognition and activity theories are
concepts related to distributed leadership (Broden,
2011, p. 6).

4. Benefits of Distributed Leadership
Harris (2014) describes benefits of distributed leadership as:
● Positive change and improve environments.
● High organizational performance.
● Relationship between shared leadership and positive
achievement growth.
● Engagement and encouragement of positive leadership

5. Challenges of Distributed Leadership
Harris (2014) describes challenges of distributed leadership
as:
● No guarantee of change to success and not wanting
change.
● Lack of accountability when leadership is distributed.
● Fear of loss of individuality and threat of responsibility

6. Distributed Leadership in Education
● Bierly et. al. (2016) discusses the steps of distributed leadership in
schools can create an opportunity for change, create teamwork, creating
roles rather than leaders, and provide a model for larger leadership.
● Some different principles of distributed leadership in schools are
focusing on improving teaching and leaders, supporting a team mission,
and empowering and strengthening leaders with time (Bierly et.al.,
2016).
● Creating more opportunities for roles in leadership through facilitating,
professional learning communities, and trying out new systems (Bierly
et.al., 2016).

7. References
Bierly, C., Doyle, B., & Smith, A. (2016). Transforming schools. Bain & Company.
https://www.bain.com/insights/transforming-schools/
Bolden, R. (2011). Distributed leadership in organizations: A review of theory and research.
International Journal of Management Reviews. 13(3). 1-29.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228118715_Distributed_Leadership_in_Orga
nizations_A_Review_of_Theory_and_Research
Harris, A. (2014). Distributed leadership. Australian Council for Education Research.
https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/distributed-leadership
Hartly, D. (2007). The emergence of distributed leadership in education: Why now?. British
Journal of Educational Studies. 55(2). 202-214. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4620553