Brief summary of academic research on shared and distributed leadership for session on "Shared Leadership: A Tool for Innovation, Engagement, and Inclusion" at 2015 Alliance for Nonprofit Management conference. Prepared by Max Freund (max@lfleadership.com). Full presentation at http://bit.ly/sharedleadership-anm15

1. © 2015 Max Freund (max@LFLeadership.com)
Shared Leadership:
A Tool For Innovation, Engagement and Inclusion
Definitions, Concepts & Findings from Academic Research
Definition
“A simultaneous, ongoing, mutual influence process involving the serial emergence of
official as well as unofficial leaders.” (Pearce & Conger, 2003)
Three Dimensions of Shared Leadership
(Contractor, DeChurch, Carson, Carter, & Keegan, 2012)
Overview of Research Literature
Who
What
When
Supportive
Factors
• Shared purpose
• Norms/culture
• Social support
• Voice
• Trust
• “Vertical”
leader coaching
• Psychological
empowerment
Outcomes
• Trust
• Cohesion
• Lower conflict
• Agreement
• Innovation
• Satisfaction
• Performance
Processes
• Info sharing
• Transactive
memory (KWKW)
• Shared mental
models
• Collective efficacy
Contingencies
• Knowledge-based work
• Complex task
• Interdependent team
• Emergent leader prototypicality
• Homogeneity of age/tenure
Shared
Leadership

2. © 2015 Max Freund (max@LFLeadership.com)
Selected Academic Research & Theory References
Carson, J. B., Tesluk, P. E., & Marrone, J. A. (2007). Shared leadership in teams: An investigation of
antecedent conditions and performance. Academy of Management Journal, 50(5), 1217-1234.
Chreim, S. (2015). The (non)distribution of leadership roles: Considering leadership practices and
configurations. Human Relations, 68(4), 517-543. doi: 10.1177/0018726714532148
Contractor, N. S., DeChurch, L. A., Carson, J., Carter, D. R., & Keegan, B. (2012). The topology of
collective leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(6), 994-1011. doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.10.010
Currie, G., & Lockett, A. (2011). Distributing leadership in health and social care: Concertive, conjoint
or collective? International Journal of Management Reviews, 13(3), 286-300. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-
2370.2011.00308.x
D’Innocenzo, L., Mathieu, J. E., & Kukenberger, M. R. (2014). A meta-analysis of different forms of
shared leadership–team performance relations. Journal of Management. doi:
10.1177/0149206314525205
Day, D. V., Gronn, P., & Salas, E. (2004). Leadership capacity in teams. The Leadership Quarterly, 15(6),
857-880.
Denis, J.-L., Langley, A., & Sergi, V. (2012). Leadership in the plural. The Academy of Management Annals,
6(1), 211-283. doi: 10.1080/19416520.2012.667612
Drath, W. H., McCauley, C. D., Palus, C. J., Van Velsor, E., O'Connor, P. M. G., & McGuire, J. B.
(2008). Direction, alignment, commitment: Toward a more integrative ontology of leadership.
The Leadership Quarterly, 19(6), 635-653. doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.09.003
Dust, S. B., & Ziegert, J. C. (2015). Multi-leader teams in review: A contingent-configuration perspective
of effectiveness. International Journal of Management Reviews, 1-24. doi: 10.1111/ijmr.12073
Fitzsimons, D., James, K. T., & Denyer, D. (2011). Alternative approaches for studying shared and
distributed leadership. International Journal of Management Reviews, 13(3), 313-328. doi:
10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00312.x
Gronn, P. (2002). Distributed leadership as a unit of analysis. The Leadership Quarterly, 13(4), 423-451.
Gronn, P. (2015). The view from inside leadership configurations. Human Relations, 68(4), 545-560. doi:
10.1177/0018726714563811
Pearce, C. L. (2004). The future of leadership: Combining vertical and shared leadership to transform
knowledge work. The Academy of Management Executive, 18(1), 47.
Pearce, C. L., & Conger, J. A. (Eds.). (2003). Shared leadership: Reframing the hows and whys of leadership.
Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.
Uhl-Bien, M. (2006). Relational leadership theory: Exploring the social processes of leadership and
organizing. The Leadership Quarterly, 17(6), 654-676.
Uhl-Bien, M., Marion, R., & McKelvey, B. (2007). Complexity leadership theory: Shifting leadership
from the industrial age to the knowledge era. The Leadership Quarterly, 18(4), 298-318.
Vandewaerde, M., Voordeckers, W., Lambrechts, F., & Bammens, Y. (2011). Board team leadership
revisited: A conceptual model of shared leadership in the boardroom. Journal of Business Ethics,
104(3), 403-420. doi: 10.1007/s10551-011-0918-6
Wang, D., Waldman, D. A., & Zhang, Z. (2014). A meta-analysis of shared leadership and team
effectiveness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(2), 181-198. doi: 10.1037/a0034531
Willems, J. (2015). Building shared mental models of organizational effectiveness in leadership teams
through team member exchange quality. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. doi:
10.1177/0899764015601244