SHARED, COLLECTIVE,
OR DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP
Similar to our discussion above about complexity
leadership, we see more evidence for shared
or collective leadership in organizations as hierarchical
levels are deleted and team-based
structures are inserted. In describing shared and
team leadership, it is important to point out that
these forms of leadership are typically viewed
as different streams of research. For example,
team leadership research has typically focused
on the role of an individual leading the team. In
contrast, those authors examining shared leadership
generally view it as a process versus a person
engaging multiple members of the team.
In this section, we refer to the terms “shared
leadership,” “distributed leadership,” and “collective
leadership” interchangeably, paralleling
their usage in the leadership literature.