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This study describes the perceptions of embedded teaching and learning leadership teams working on curriculum reform in science teaching departments. The teams combined a formally recognised leader, School Director of Learning and Teaching, with a project-based, more junior academic, Curriculum Fellow, to better leverage support for curriculum reform. Teams were established on the principles of localizing support and maximising credibility with discipline staff. The core teams were supported by a larger Faculty team of Associate Dean Academic, academic developer, educational designer, first year coordinator and project manager. Key themes emerging from the collected data were the complementary roles of members of the team, different perceptions of leadership between the School Directors of Learning and Teaching and the Curriculum Fellows, the importance of acting locally within the disciplines and the synergistic value of working in a team. The combination of formal and informal leadership aggregated into the FSTE School teams offers a model to support sustainable improvement in science teaching and learning in higher education.

Implementing teaching enhancement is especially challenging when undertaken on a large-scale and with a range of participating institutions and stakeholders. This study sought to advance understand...

The quality of students who graduated from Nigerian universities and the role played by universities in the growth of society is a significant concern to every stakeholder. This study examined the impact of distributed leadership on the effectiveness of public universities and the mediating role of the quality administrative process. A correlational survey research design was adopted. A total of 450 lecturers were sampled and were given questionnaire of which 346 questionnaire were returned and, only 305 questionnaires were usable after the data cleaning. The results of the analysis showed that distributed leadership does not directly connect to institutional effectiveness. Furthermore, it is evident that administrative process intervenes in the correlation between distributed leadership and public university effectiveness. The findings imply that the various leaders at the unit level, departmental, faculty, and university-wide must ensure quality administrative processes to bring about the desired University system in the country. Keywords: Distributed leadership, administrative process, university education, Nigeria, smartpls, hierarchical model

Introduction Interchangeability—i.e., the capacity to change places with another—is necessary for military interprofessional health care teams (MIHTs) to provide around-the-clock patient care. However, while interchangeability is clearly a necessity for modern health care delivery, it raises uncomfortable questions for civilian health care teams where it is usually labeled as unsafe. This perception surfaces because interchangeability runs counter to some of health care’s cultural beliefs including those around patient ownership and professional scopes of practice. It is, therefore, not surprising that little is known about whether and how some level of interchangeability can be harnessed to improve the productivity of health care teams overall. In this article, we explore the notion of interchangeability in the particular context of MIHTs given that these health care teams are familiar with it. This exploration will offer insights into how interchangeability could maximize civilian health care teams’ capacity to adapt. Materials and Methods We conducted a secondary analysis of interview data as an analytic expansion: “the kind of study in which the researcher makes further use of a primary data set in order to ask new or emerging questions that derive from having conducted the original analysis but were not envisioned within the original scope of the primary study aims”. Within our secondary analysis approach, we used thematic analysis as our analytical tool to describe (1) what interchangeability looks like in MIHT teams, (2) how it is fostered in MIHTs, and (3) how it is enacted in MIHTs. Results Interchangeability was realized in MIHTs when individual team members adapted to take on roles and/or tasks that were not clearly niched in their specific areas of expertise but instead drew on the broad foundation of their clinical skill set. Cross-training and distributed leadership were ways in which MIHT members described how interchangeability was fostered. Furthermore, five features of working within MIHT teams were identified as key conditions to enact interchangeability: knowing your team members; being able to work with what/who you have; actively seeking others’ expertise; situating your role within the broader picture of the mission; and maintaining a learning/teaching mindset. Conclusions Interchangeability can be understood through the theoretical lens of Swarm Intelligence and more specifically, the principle of collective self-healing—which is the ability of collectives to continue to successfully perform despite disruption, challenges, or the loss of a team member. Our findings highlight how MIHTs have adopted interchangeability in a wide array of contexts to realize collective self-healing. Despite the discomfort it provokes, we suggest that interchangeability could be a powerful asset to civilian health care teams.

This paper presents a thematic analysis and critical review of leadership behaviors during the novel coronavirus pandemic, drawn from the 138 publications on COVID-19 in higher education, published between 1 January 2020 and 30 June 2020, and available as an open access database. The aim is to provide a critical understanding of specific leadership behaviors that influence educational technology adoption and implementation in the higher education sector, by adopting and using iterative examination approach from Braun and Clarke’s framework. This analysis resulted in 20 publications from the open access database that met our criteria, with results indicating an interplay between leadership styles and leadership environment. The leadership styles emerging in our thematic analysis include authentic leadership, servant leadership, leader-member exchange (LMX), situational leadership, distributed leadership, and ineffective forms of leadership. The intersectionality of these styles with components of leadership environment, like social networks and financial management, provides a greater understanding of the types of leadership behaviors that, if developed in higher educational leaders, could support greater preparedness for future periods of uncertainty and change. This paper highlights the importance of targeted leadership development for increasing educational technology efficacy in the higher education sector.

In recent decades, public administration has taken a great interest in leadership. However, this interest has been met with concerns that the effects of leadership are overestimated compared to other relevant organizational factors. In this article, we explore the relative importance of formal, vertical leadership, specifically transformational leadership, and horizontal relations, that is, the internal team relations, for different employee outcomes and user satisfaction. We argue that both factors may work through public service motivation (PSM). Based on survey data collected in Danish nursing homes linked with a user satisfaction survey and employee sickness absence data, we find that the internal team relations have the strongest association with some outcome measures, whereas others are more substantially related to vertical leadership. We further find that the relationship between transformational leadership and these outcome measures is fully mediated by PSM, whereas this is not the case with the internal team relations.

Although it is generally known that distributed leadership is relevant for reinforcing teachers’ capacity to change, how leadership roles are distributed among teachers largely depends on how principals perceive distributed leadership. Specifying principals’ perceptions and how these are related to teachers’ capacity to change leads to theories about the knowledge and beliefs of leaders with regard to distributed leadership that are crucial for achieving educational change as a team. Combining questionnaire data from 787 Dutch primary school teachers and interview data from 58 principals in a parallel mixed methods design, this study shows differences in how school leaders distribute leadership roles. In addition, the results indicate that several aspects of teachers’ capacity to change, namely, joint work, collegial support, knowledge sharing, self-efficacy and their internalization of school goals, are more present in schools in which school leaders distribute leadership among teachers than in schools in which they do not.

Distributed leadership has become one of the most popular and important leadership models in the West, particularly in the field of education. However, both theoretical and empirical research into ...

PurposeThis paper aims to extend the consideration of distributed leadership in health-care settings. Leadership is typically studied from the classical notion of the place of single leaders and continues to examine distributed leadership within small teams or horizontally. The purpose is to develop a practical understanding of how distributed leadership may occur vertically, between different layers of the health-care leadership hierarchy, examining its influence on health-care outcomes across two hospitals.Design/methodology/approachUsing semi-structured interviews, data were collected from 107 hospital employees (including executive leadership, clinical management and clinicians) from two hospitals in Australia and the USA. Using thematic content analysis, an iterative process was adopted characterized by alternating between social identity and distributed leadership literature and empirical themes to answer the question of how the practice of distributed leadership influences performance outcomes in hospitals?FindingsThe perceived social identities of leadership groups shaped communication and performance both positively and negatively. In one hospital a moderating structure emerged as a leadership dyad, where leadership was distributed vertically between hospital hierarchal layers, observed to overcome communication limitations. Findings suggest dyad creation is an effective mechanism to overcome hospital hierarchy-based communication issues and ameliorate health-care outcomes.Originality/valueThe study demonstrates how current leadership development practices that focus on leadership relational and social competencies can benefit from a structural approach to include leadership dyads that can foster these same competencies. This approach could help develop future hospital leaders and in doing so, improve hospital outcomes.

Background/Context Schools and teachers are under immense pressure to adopt technology as a mechanism of educational equity. As such, it is important to understand what school-level practices can support more meaningful technology integration in classrooms. This is especially critical in a time (during the COVID-19 pandemic) when digital learning has been forcibly implemented nationwide, and scholars are voicing concerns that educational organizations’ choices about technology now may lead to lasting issues of power and control, new forms of student inequity, and other unexpected effects. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study examines a blended personalized learning school—a school designed to offer a combination of computer-based learning experiences and face-to-face instruction—to demonstrate how leaders can help teachers integrate technology into their classrooms in a meaningful and sustainable way. The research question is: What school practices support teachers to successfully incorporate technology into the classroom? Setting The research site is Binary High School, a personalized learning charter high school in a large urban area that primarily serves historically disadvantaged students. Participants: The participants include the content teachers in Grades 9–11, as well as the school founder, the principal and assistant principal, the student services coordinator, data analysis coordinator, and the IT director. Research Design This research stems from a three-year qualitative case study of a high-tech personalized learning charter high school. I conducted 37 interviews with teachers, students, staff, and administrators and observed dozens of classes, several parent nights, and many professional development meetings and staff meetings. I also collected hundreds of physical and digital documents. Findings/Results The pilot teacher program supported technology integration and showed how distributed leadership practices—specifically, providing opportunities and building capacity for a more collaborative, horizontal leadership structure, supporting teacher professionalization, and sharing the responsibilities for leadership across stakeholders at multiple levels—can support technology-driven educational initiatives. Conclusions/Recommendations For schools interested in technology-based instructional models, a pilot teacher program similar to the one described in this article may be worth exploring. More generally, adopting a distributed perspective of leadership and drawing on practices that exemplify that perspective can help to engage teachers in schoolwide technology integration and classroom reform.

From 2016, all Western Australian schools were mandated to implement the National Quality Standard (NQS) in Kindergarten through to Year 2. Over the first year of implementation, this mandate had varying degrees of success in adoption. This study examined four schools which were identified as having implemented the NQS. A qualitative methodology was employed to examine those factors that supported implementation. A key finding was the integral role played by distributed leadership in adopting new initiatives. Using Activity Theory to conceptualise the data, it was found that psychological ownership was a key factor in enabling distributed leadership. Ownership was enabled when community differences were acknowledged, and time was given for the NQS tool to be reassessed and reconfigured as one’s own. Once staff had psychological ownership, they were more likely to support implementation of the NQS. This study has implications for leaders and those implementing the NQS or other initiatives in schools.

PurposeThe authors tested the efficacy of a team-based instructional leadership intervention designed to increase middle school mathematics and science teachers' use of educational technologies for multiple representations of content to foster students' conceptual understandings. Each school's leadership team comprised an administrator, a technology instructional specialist role, and a mathematics and a science teacher leader.Design/methodology/approachThe authors tested the intervention in a quasi-experimental design with five treatment and five matched comparison schools. Participants included 48 leadership team members and 100 grade 6–8 teachers and their students. The authors analyzed data using two-level, nested multiple regressions to determine the effect of treatment on leaders' practices; leaders' practices on teachers' learning and integration; and teachers' learning and integration on students' learning. Leaders and teachers completed monthly self-reports of practices; students completed pre- and post-tests of knowledge in science and math.FindingsSignificant treatment effects at the leader, teacher and student levels establish the efficacy of this team-based approach to school leadership of an educational technology integration innovation. Leaders at treatment schools participated in a significantly higher total frequency and a wider variety of leadership activities, with large effect sizes. Teachers participated in a significantly wider variety of learning modes focused on technology integration and integrated technology significantly more frequently, with a wider variety of technologies, all with moderate effect sizes. Students in treatment schools significantly outperformed students in comparison schools in terms of science achievement but not in mathematics.Research limitations/implicationsThe overall sample size is small and the approach to participant recruitment did not allow for randomized assignment to the treatment condition. The authors tested the influence of treatment on leader practices, on teacher practices, and on student achievement. Future work is needed to identify the core components of treatment that influence practice and investigate the causal relationships between specific leaders' practices, teacher practices and student achievement.Originality/valueThis study establishes the efficacy of a replicable approach to developing team-based instructional leaders addressing educational technology. It contributes to the knowledge base about how district leaders and leadership educators might foster school leaders' instructional leadership, and more specifically technology leadership capacity.

Patients with rare diseases, as well as their caregivers, sometimes develop new solutions to deal with their health conditions but only a small fraction share the solution with their doctor or other health professionals. When the value of patient-developed solutions is considered, the evidence is that these solutions consistently help improve the overall quality of life. Patient-developed innovations are very heterogeneous in nature, level of quality, sophistication, and cost; nonetheless, the majority are frugal in cost and design. In this paper, we explore the organizational lessons of the patient innovation platform and community, and its leadership expressions, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Multi-sided online platforms for collecting, curating, and distributing those innovations can help in the fight against the pandemic by centralizing decentralization and we consider this theme in terms of our understanding of when leadership is distributed and when it is not. Distributed leadership can be considered as a paradox, a process in which leadership is retained and dispersed.MAD statementThis article seeks to Make a Difference (MAD) by challenging how we consider leadership in situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic, where the level of necessity is high (e.g. life-threatening disease), multi-disciplinary (multiple social and economic impacts) and distributed (similar necessities occur almost simultaneously across different geographies) and where a fast response is crucial to alleviate the suffering of populations. Attention needs to be given to bottom-up frugal innovations developed by citizens who are not scientists, who do so in a distributed way through formal mechanisms (such as multi-sided platform) for collecting, curating and distributing those innovations and can help in the fight against the pandemic.

This study investigated the mediating role of initiative climate on the relationship between distributed leadership and organizational resilience in schools. The study employed a cross-sectional design following quantitative methods. The sample consisted of 310 teachers recruited from different cities located in seven geographical regions of Turkey in 2020-2021 academic year using convenience sampling. Data were collected online (Google Forms) using the Distributed Leadership Inventory, Personal Initiative Scale, and Organizational Resilience Scale, all of which had acceptable validity and reliability. Participants “agreed” with initiative climate and organizational resilience in schools and school principals’ distributed leadership behaviors. There were positive correlations between the variables. The results showed that distributed leadership (leadership coherence and leadership functions) fosters initiative climate and organizational resilience in schools. Initiative climate also contributes to organizational resilience in schools. Lastly, it can be said that distributed leadership has a significant effect on schools’ resilience through initiative climate.

This paper investigates how professional learning of teachers might be improved by two key factors: distributed leadership and teacher agency. Designed as a cross-sectional survey, this study used ...

Despite the popularity of distributed leadership theory, the investigation of the micro-political aspects of such models have scarcely been explored, and insights on the cultural variety of distributed practices in schools are limited. The present study aimed to explore what micro-political aspects emerge in participative decision making in collectivist and individualist cultures. To this end, a multiple case study method was adopted, focusing on four Israeli public high schools. Schools were chosen to represent an ‘extreme’ case selection rationale: two non-religious urban schools representing individualist cases, and two communal schools in religious kibbutzim representing communal schools. The analysis shed light on three micro-political points of comparison between the prototypes of participative decision making in collectivist and individualist cultures related to control, actors, and stage crafting. The findings and implications are discussed.

Aim: To know whether the legal and institutional framework of the educational structure and operation, therefore of the school leadership as follows, is properly formed in Greek educational system and what the model of distributed leadership plays in the Greek educational context. Results: The organization of Greek formal education is based on the bureaucratic system. This centralized system of school organization leaves little room for action and initiative for principals and, consequently, for teachers. It is important that the personal vision of the principals is transmitted to the other members of the school, in possible sources of leadership, as a factor of change and inspiration for all, overcoming the abovementioned bureaucratic system but also for the system itself to change and become more diverse and flexible. Conclusion: In our opinion the detachment from the traditional, hierarchical forms of leadership and the transition to the division of responsibilities and the decentralization of power is imperative. Despite the typical structure of any education system, we believe that schools maintain some degree of autonomy that they can use to create a power distribution network, even informally.

A literature review is presented on the modes of effective network leadership within and between organizations. In total, 163 published studies, both empirical and conceptual, were parsed with regard to definitions, contexts, antecedents, and outcomes, leading to four propositions. A continuum of network leadership concepts, including shared and distributed leadership, is projected on two axes: one for the (individual actor and collective level) antecedents and one for the (type of desired) outcomes of network leadership. The new two-by-two model distinguishes four distinct network leadership roles: connecting, coaching, catalyzing, and consulting. The 4C network leadership model offers a set of practical roles and associated behavioral styles in different situations. Context-moderated propositions conclude the review, to guide future empirical research on effective interorganizational and intraorganizational network leadership.

This article examines the distribution of leadership between vice-principals and principals in Singapore. Vice-principals are an important leadership source in schools because they contribute to va...

Leadership development programmes increasingly encourage plural forms of leadership to counteract the pitfalls of individualistic approaches. This paper contributes to our understanding of the role of context in developing and spreading leadership across hierarchies. Working within an omnibus approach to context, previous research has highlighted the role of institutional forces in the emergence of distributed leadership in the public sector, yet so far neglected the influence of the discrete organisational context. Drawing on an in-depth case study of a private sector organisation trying to recover from a turbulent past through an in-house leadership development initiative, we show how the omnibus and discrete organisational contexts jointly facilitate and constrain the development and spread of leadership and how they are instrumentalised in this process. We surface how social and political dynamics associated with socio-material relationships and institutional arrangements, together with wider omnibus forces, influence the aim of an in-house leadership development programme and its potential to impact perceptions and practice of distributed leadership in organisational settings. We argue that a nested approach to context – encompassing the interconnected omnibus and discrete contexts – is required for a deeper understanding of the factors that facilitate and constrain the development and spread of leadership.

Purpose This paper explores the role of distributed leadership for learning and innovation in organizations. Learning and innovation being collective interactive processes, individual leadership is not the most effective way to drive them. This paper discusses how developing a distributed approach to leadership can be useful in enhancing the effectiveness of these processes, particularly in the current context of dispersed and remote working spurred by the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws on literature from the domains of leadership and learning to discuss how effectiveness of learning and innovation can be enhanced through the application of appropriate leadership models. Findings This paper brings out the importance of developing a distributed leadership approach to enhance learning and innovation in organizations. It provides actionable suggestions that can be used by organizations to develop shared leadership capabilities. Originality/value Moving away from traditional leadership models, this paper highlights the significant role that distributed leadership can play to enhance the effectiveness of collective processes such as learning and innovation. The approach is even more relevant in the current pandemic context where organizations are operating in a distributed setup with flexible work from home arrangements. Learning and innovation in such virtual, asynchronous work arrangements is a challenge. Development of distributed leadership mindset and approach can enable organizations to operate more effectively in the new normal.

This article explores the nature of leadership in Brazilian complementary schools in the UK. Such schools are typically parent-driven, voluntary and financially vulnerable. Using data from a questionnaire survey ( n=14; more than three-quarters of Brazilian complementary schools) and three in-depth case studies, leadership is examined in relation to five established approaches: directive, instructional, transformational, distributed and collaborative. The study found that the size of the school and the personality of the leader appeared to influence the type of leadership adopted. In terms of effectiveness, a combination of instructional leadership with an approach that motivated staff and volunteers (whether directive, collaborative or transformational, depending on the school’s circumstances) seemed most appropriate to the context of complementary schools. The research illustrates the complexity of school leadership and the overlap between different models. Leadership flexibility was important in responding to the needs of staff, students and parents. The findings are transferable to mainstream schools with contexts similar to those of complementary schools, particularly small primary schools and free schools.

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to highlight the impact of distributed leadership (DL) on exploitative and exploratory innovations through the mediating effects of organizational trust (OT) and tacit and explicit knowledge sharing (KS).Design/methodology/approachFocusing on a quantitative approach, an empirical study was performed within a sample of information and communication technology Tunisian firms. The data collected was analyzed through the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method.FindingsFindings revealed that DL is a driver of tacit and explicit KS, and exploitative and exploratory innovations. It also highlighted that tacit KS is associated with these two types of innovation. In this line, results showed that tacit KS plays a mediating effect between DL and exploitative and exploratory innovations. Moreover, our research highlighted that DL has a positive impact on OT that in turn boosts tacit and explicit KS.Originality/valueThis paper investigates the links between DL and exploitative and exploratory innovations within knowledge intensive firms (KIFs) that have never been studied in the literature within the context of business firms. This paper pioneers the examination of the mediating roles of explicit and tacit KS and OT in these links as well. This paper highlights the importance of DL for KIFs and sheds the light on how this collectivist approach of leadership creates an atmosphere of trust and fosters tacit and explicit KS to boost exploitative and exploratory innovations.

Research evidence has suggested distributed leadership might help improve school outcomes, but the conceptualization and operationalization of distributed leadership itself remain inconsistent, and...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of distributed leadership on organizational commitment and the role of trust and open group climate as moderator variables in this relationship. Design/methodology/approach To test the conceptual model and research hypotheses empirically, the authors collected data based on an investigation over a sample of 318 engineers in the Information Technology telecommunication sector in Tunisia. The results were analyzed using factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Findings The results show a significant and positive impact of the support function, of the participation in decision-making and cooperation on organizational commitment. The authors find evidence for the existence of a positive moderating effect of trust and affective climate at the level of the causal link between distributed leadership and organizational commitment dimensions. Research limitations/implications These results provide useful indications for managers within the framework of leadership style that is more appropriate to the group’s proper functioning. Throughout this work, managers will know that distributed leadership is adapted to create a social climate based on dialogue and trust, an essential element of distributed leadership. Supervision and authority should give up a coercive vision in a more cooperative and constructive approach. Coordination should be founded on a horizontal and transversal vision of the organization. Originality/value Distributed leadership is increasingly seen as a key vehicle for firms’ improvement and renewal. However, research on this concept was largely conducted in the field of education and health. Studies dealing with small and medium-sized companies are rather scarce. There are not, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, any works in the Tunisian context because the majority of the reference studies are Anglo-Saxon. The originality and value of this research lies in its anchoring in the context. Moreover, this study provides empirical evidence of the importance of the role of the affective climate on organizational commitment. Indeed, engagement is a behavioral and attitudinal indicator of organizational climate. This paper is intended to provide a stimulus for exploring the distributed leadership area in terms of shaping thinking and designs for organizational change to enhance organizational commitment in a highly digital world.

PurposeUnless the expertise of multiple teachers is availed, it is very unlikely for an individual leader to bring improvement especially at classroom level. This realization had led to the emergence of distributed leadership which is about engaging multiple individuals in leadership roles. The purpose of this study is to explore the role of school leadership in distributing leadership to teachers in a private secondary school in an urban context of Pakistan.Design/methodology/approachUsing qualitative approach and case study method, the research collects data from school leaders and teachers involved in leadership roles through interviews.FindingsIt was found that leadership facilitates distributed leadership through formulating a vision to develop teachers, enhancing the capacity of individuals involved in leadership roles, establishing a culture of trust, and creating opportunities for interaction and collaboration among teachers.Practical implicationsSchool leadership should distribute leadership to teachers in order to utilize the potential of multiple individuals which will ultimately lead to school improvement through initiatives from within. Educational reformers should incorporate the concept of distributed leadership in the professional development programmes designed for school leaders and teachers.Originality/valueThe study is first of its nature which reports on distributed leadership from a private sector school of Pakistan based on original data.

Given recent large-scale reform of school leadership and management policy with implications for leadership preparation, the Republic of Ireland is an interesting context in which to explore leadership preparation. Although policy reforms have influenced the preparation and development of school leaders at all levels in the system, there is little available research on principals’ perceptions of their preparation to lead schools in the contemporary policy context. Addressing this gap in the research, in this study 12 recently appointed, novice primary and post-primary principals’ perceptions of their preparation to become a school leader and the reformed policy context are documented and analysed. Thematic analysis of principals’ accounts exposes a range of dualities they must navigate owing to recent reforms. Their accounts also paint their diverse pathways towards the principalship, illuminate challenges and complexities on this pathway and in their current position. Their perspectives inform a more dynamic framework of leadership preparation than that of the leadership pipeline, a common metaphor in leadership preparation, with relevance for many actors in the system, including policy-makers, researchers, practitioners and those involved in selection and appointment. Implications are drawn for the Irish context but may also be relevant to other jurisdictions considering or implementing reform of school leadership preparation.

Purpose: Employees constitute an important source of innovation in organizations. Innovation management strategies often includes attempts of stimulating employees’ innovative contribution by instilling managerial trust and granting job autonomy. However, we suggest and investigate the role of employees’ Distributed Leadership Agency (DLA) in hospital employee-driven innovation.Methodology: We tested the hypotheses using survey data from 1,536 non-managerial employees at a hospital in Denmark. In order to deal with a methodological risk of survey designs, we assessed and adjusted the results for Common Method Variance.Findings: We validated a DLA measurement instrument and found an indirect relationship between job autonomy and trust in management on the one hand, via DLA, and with idea generation, promotion and implementation on the other hand. In addition, the results showed a small direct relationship between job autonomy and the three innovative behaviors. The results showed that CMV did bias relationships and reliabilities but only little.Practical implications: The study introduces distributed leadership to the field of innovation management and confirms that this concept is highly relevant for employee innovation. In order to strengthen an organization’s innovative potential, leaders may not only need to grant autonomy and instill trust in their employees, but also gain from employee innovation by distributing leadership tasks to employees.Originality/value: This study is one of the first to introduce distributed leadership to the field of employee innovation management. By identifying distributed leadership as a key variable, the findings adds to our extant understanding of how employee involvement encourages employee innovation. Purpose: Employees constitute an important source of innovation in organizations. Innovation management strategies often include attempts of stimulating employees' innovative contribution by instilling managerial trust and granting job autonomy. However, the authors suggest and investigate the role of employees' distributed leadership agency (DLA) in hospital employee-driven innovation. Design/methodology/approach: The authors tested the hypotheses using survey data from 1,536 nonmanagerial employees at a hospital in Denmark. In order to deal with a methodological risk of survey designs, the authors assessed and adjusted the results for common method variance (CMV). Findings: The authors validated a DLA measurement instrument and found an indirect relationship between job autonomy and trust in management on the one hand, via DLA, and with idea generation, promotion and implementation on the other hand. In addition, the results showed a small direct relationship between job autonomy and the three innovative behaviors. The results showed that CMV did bias relationships and reliabilities but only little. Practical implications: The study introduces distributed leadership to the field of innovation management and confirms that this concept is highly relevant for employee innovation. In order to strengthen an organization's innovative potential, leaders may not only need to grant autonomy and instill trust in their employees, but also gain from employee innovation by distributing leadership tasks to employees. Originality/value: This study is one of the first to introduce distributed leadership to the field of employee innovation management. By identifying distributed leadership as a key variable, the findings add to one’s extant understanding of how employee involvement encourages employee innovation.

Background. Current research supports the use of recreational games in higher education settings for student development. Team-based esports in collegiate settings offer leadership experiences analogous to other organizational contexts. Distributed leadership reflects leader roles shared dynamically with multiple points of salience and dynamic or absent hierarchy. Aim. This study looked at elements of distributed leadership claimed among collegiate esports teams and whether esports play contributed to distributed leadership development. Methods. This phenomenological deductive qualitative research study used themes from distributed leadership theory to examine the experiences of focus groups composed of competitive collegiate esports participants on three teams from three different popular esport games, respectively. Results. Researchers found that ample comparisons across respondent team interviews corresponded with the leadership theory and found that the more static influence of credibility seemed to mediate team-based communications and behaviors. Conclusion. Implications for distributed leadership both in esports and in other organizations include considerations for intentionality behind how hierarchies are enacted and how credibility may inform an understanding of power distribution within teams.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to place the idea of the learning organization in a historical, multidisciplinary context with the aim of identifying obstacles and opportunities for its greater realization in practice. Design/methodology/approach Marking the 30th anniversary of publication of Peter Senge's “The Fifth Discipline”, the paper reflects on approaches to the study and analysis of organizations over the past century from German sociology, human relations, organization development, the learning organization to responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Findings It is suggested that distributed leadership is critical to the realization of organizational learning and its absence is a major inhibitor of such learning. Following Argyris, it is argued that high levels of skill (personal mastery) may, in some circumstances, provide a barrier to organizational learning in the face of contextual uncertainty and change. Research limitations/implications While no specific areas of research are proposed, questions are raised which may only be answered in the wake of appropriate (interdisciplinary) research. Practical implications The reflective nature of the paper suggests that significant reform is required in the legislation that encourages short-term thinking on the part of institutional investors to the detriment of strategic thinking and long-term planning. Social implications The Covid-19 pandemic seems to have provided an opportunity to redress a perceived imbalance between traditional organizational thinking and opportunities demonstrated by effective community action, for reappraisal of organizations as communities of people as well as being formalized structures, systems and processes. Originality/value This paper seeks to synthesize diverse theories of organization with the aim of stimulating further innovation in approaches to organizational learning.

Action research (AR) offers an ideological fit with the culture and the work of the academy - they share a culture of collegiality, evidence- and theory-based practice, and a focus on reflection an...

This article aimed at clearing the confusion that surrounds two leadership concepts: collegial and distributed leadership. Many scholars use these two leadership concepts interchangeably, as though...

The premise of this article is that studies of distributed leadership could benefit from further incorporation of institutional approaches to better understand complex reform demands facing school ...

This article draws upon the educational leadership knowledge base to explore central concepts, questions, and issues of relevance to the contemporary policy context in Wales. The article is not a r...

Purpose To investigate leadership in clinical genomics and identify likely implications of different leadership approaches for future implementation of clinical genomics. Methods We undertook 37 interviews in a cross-sectional qualitative study examining implementation of clinical genomics in Australia. Participants were either nongenetic medical specialists working with genomic initiatives (e.g., immunologists, nephrologists) or working at a service/organizational level (e.g., department heads, chief medical officers). We identified participants as genomic migrants (long-established practitioners) and genomic natives (those medical specialists coming into independent practice with genomic technology in situ). Data were analyzed deductively with reference to leadership approach. Results Leadership approaches were often blended or reported to iteratively support development of another. There was concern at both the absence or the excess of entrepreneurial leadership (i.e., risk-taking). Conclusion Entrepreneurial leadership is needed to promote innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactivity, essential in these early stages of clinical genomics. Shared decision-making is required from a wide range of clinicians, calling for both clinical and distributed leadership. Sharing leadership, and the potential loss of positional status from formal senior positions, may prove challenging to genomics “migrants,” who are essential for nurturing genomic “natives.” Clinicians will need support from their organizations and professional bodies to manage the transition.

PurposeThis article explores how school leaders are responding during COVID-19 and what forms of leadership practice are emerging.Design/methodology/approachThis article draws upon the contemporary leadership literature and scholarly work.FindingsThis article proposes that the current crisis has shifted school leadership dramatically towards distributed, collaborative and network practices.Originality/valueThis article offers a commentary about the changing role of school leaders and their changing leadership practice during this pandemic.

The aim of this study is to determine the organizational and environmental contexts that affect the distributed leadership behaviours of school principals working in primary schools in Turkey. A phenomenological research approach has been adopted and data was collected via semi-structured interviews conducted with 15 primary school principals. Maximum variation sampling strategy is used in recruiting participants and the collected data was analysed using content analysis. The results suggested that legislations, school culture, parents’ and students’ culture, national culture, and centralized and bureaucratic structure affect the attitude school principals distribute the leadership in schools. School principals generally do not want to share leadership with teachers or parents. While the justification about teachers is based on their reluctance to take responsibility or the negative competition between them, the justification for parents is based on the potential of parents' leadership to be a threat towards social justice at school. In addition, the law puts more responsibility on school principals, pushing them to become the leader of the school. However, school principals do not have as much authority as responsibility at schools. Thus, the hierarchical structure that intensifies the power in the center will provide more effective control over the school.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of distributed leadership (DL) on technical quality (TQ) from the perspective of healthcare workers. Methods: Data were collected from 4...

Leadership has been increasingly distributed away from formal leaders towards more shared arrangements in Western educational contexts, wherein the vast majority of the existing research literature...

PurposeOrganisational Development (OD), with its focus on partnership working and distributed leadership, is increasingly advocated as an effective approach to driving change. Our evaluation of the impact of OD on delivery of integrated care in three London boroughs sheds light on how OD is being understood and implemented within health services, and what impact it is having on delivery of care.Design/methodology/approachThe findings presented here are based on a qualitative and participatory evaluation. The authors looked at how health and social care professionals communicated and coordinated delivery of care and evaluated the impact of current OD activities on the ground to evidence whether and to which degree they are enabling frontline staff to change their working routines towards greater coordination.FindingsOur findings highlight the limited reach and scope of a top-down approach to OD based on ad hoc coaching and staff engagement events, often delivered by external consultancies, and mostly focused at the senior management level. This approach fell short of enabling the creation of sustainable, integrated and collaborative organisations. Instead, some of the professionals that participated in our study tried to develop spaces that facilitated ongoing dialogue and mutual support among professionals on the ground.Practical implicationsInitiatives of bottom-up OD such as those described in this paper have greater potential to change working routines as they enable staff to move towards more collaborative and coordinated work.Originality/valueThese findings contribute to the literature on OD in public services and highlight the benefits of a context-sensitive, pragmatic, and long-term approach to OD to help create sustainable collaborative organisations.

PurposeUnderstanding the relationship between distributed leadership and teachers commitment to change in the Chinese urban primary school context was the purpose of this study.Design/methodology/approachQuantitative research method is used in this study. For ensuring comprehensiveness, this research employed a random sampling method. This study took place in Chinese urban primary schools. A total of 350 questionnaires were circulated, 318 questionnaires were returned, and 291 questionnaires were valid, with a response rate of 90.9 per cent and a validity rate of 91.5 per cent.FindingsThe results of path analysis indicated that various dimensions of distributed leadership, including collaboration and cooperation, responsibility and accountability, and values and beliefs, had significant effects on group competence. Collaboration and cooperation and decision making had significant relationships with task analysis. Collaboration and cooperation, responsibility and accountability, and values and beliefs had significant effects on collective teacher efficacy as a single variable.Originality/valueThese findings contribute to the understanding of educational management in the Chinese context and advance knowledge about distributed leadership theories in an East Asian context.

Purpose: This study is primarily interested in the operational evidence of distributed leadership using large-scale and multicountry data. Specifically, this study investigates (a) how three position-based human units—the principal, the management team, and teachers—could lead nine school leadership functions together and (b) how the country and school contextual factors are related to the leadership distribution mechanism, which examines the associations among variables across national boundaries including 32 countries. Research Design: This study conducted a secondary data analysis using the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey. The researcher first constructed the latent variables to quantify the extent to which the three groups led the nine leadership functions. Then a resampling approach with balanced repeated replication weights was used to disclose the extent to which each group led each of the 17 leadership tasks. Finally, a structural equation model helped reveal the existing associations among contextual factors and distributed leadership operation. Findings: First, distributed leadership was reported by principals to exist in 25 countries, and there were seven distributed leadership patterns discovered among 32 countries included in the sample, though two patterns were revealed to have little leadership distribution. Second, this study found that the principal, the management team, and teachers led varied leadership functions. Finally, both country and school contextual factors were associated with how leadership was distributed. Conclusions: This study, using large-scale and international data, has added new evidence with a particular interest in the effects of contextual influence on distributed leadership practices.

Communities of practice, based on the work of Etienne Wenger, is being adopted as a framework in higher education to facilitate and foster professional learning. This article describes the emergenc...

Refereed/Peer-reviewed University middle leaders play a significant role in change management. While research examines the outcomes of change management, far less attention has been paid to how middle leaders develop agency and negotiate their identities in achieving these outcomes. This study presents the cases of two middle leaders in Shanghai enacting a curriculum reform at their respective universities. Participants were interviewed at the beginning and the end of the first innovation year and relevant curriculum documents were collected. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis protocol. Figured worlds theory provides a conceptual lens for analysis. The two leaders demonstrated distinctly different patterns of response. Agency and negotiations strongly related to whether they saw themselves as ‘sandwiched’ between conflicting priorities or ‘filtering’ these priorities to produce meaningful outcomes. Implications for research and practice are discussed, including understanding and development of middle leaders’ agency and identity in the face of complex innovation priorities.

In this introductory article we explain the impetus for creating the Special Issue, along with its goals and the process by which we created it. We present a map of the terrain of collective leadership (CL) that builds on earlier frameworks, recognizing that the terrain is expanding and has become increasingly difficult to traverse. The map is comprised of two axes or dimensions. The first axis, the ‘locus of leadership,’ captures how scholars conceptualize where to look for manifestations of leadership. That is, does the leadership reside in the group or does it reside in the system? The second axis is the view of ‘collectivity’ that plots how scholars conceptualize the collective. Do they see it as an empirical type of leadership or a theoretical lens through which to study leadership? We then plot distinctive CL research into four cells, providing definitions and references to empirical work emblematic for each cell. In introducing and summarizing each of the five articles we have selected for this Special Issue, we show where each of these is located on the CL research map, and distil how each provides a clear connection between theory and method in a way that advances our understanding of CL.

This qualitative case study examined the distribution of leadership and the implementation of an instructional reform in a low-performing urban middle school. Leadership for the instructional reform was widely distributed and stretched across formal and informal teacher leaders. School personnel were highly invested in the instructional model and implementation was high. The broad distribution of leadership across formal and informal leaders contributed to the school beginning to turnaround from lackluster academic performance and mediocre instruction to a culture where implementation of the instructional reform was expected, and where teacher collaboration and accountability were becoming the norm.