Richard Bolden

Distributed Leadership in Organizations: A Review of Theory and Research

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.

Leadership Competencies: Time to Change the Tune?:

This article indicates how the competency approach to leadership could be conceived of as a repeating refrain that continues to offer an illusory promise to rationalize and simplify the processes of selecting, measuring and developing leaders, yet only reflects a fragment of the complexity that is leadership. To make this argument we draw on two sets of data: a review of leadership competency frameworks and an analysis of participant reports from a reflective leadership development programme. A lexical analysis comparing the two data sets highlights a substantial difference with regards to the relative importance placed on the moral, emotional and relationship dimensions of leadership. The implications of these differences are considered, as are ways in which the competency approach could be aligned more closely with the current and future needs of leaders and organizations. In particular, we argue that a more discursive approach that helps to reveal and challenge underlying organizational assumptions is likely to be more beneficial if organizations are looking to move beyond individualistic notions of leadership towards more inclusive and collective forms. Methodological issues are also raised around the comparative analysis (both semantic and linguistic) of apparently incommensurable texts.

Measures of perceived work characteristics for health services research: Test of a measurement model and normative data

Objectives. The aim of this paper is to describe the development and refinement of nine measures of perceived work characteristics for use in studies of the psychological wellbeing of health services employees. The constructs measured are: autonomy/control, feedback, influence, leader support, professional compromise, role clarity, role conflict, peer support and work demands. Design. The study was a large scale cross-sectional survey. Methods. National Health Service Trust staff were selected from seven major occupational groups (nurses, doctors, administrative staff, managers, professions allied to medicine, professional and technical staff, and ancillary staff) within a sample of Trusts chosen to be representative of those in England. Questionnaires incorporating the scale items were completed by over 9,000 staff. The fit with the a priori nine-dimensional measurement model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. Scale internal reliabilities and norms were calculated, and aspects of construct validity were examined. Results. The findings show a good fit to the measurement model for the sample as a whole and across occupational groups. All the scales exhibit acceptable internal reliabilities; and normative data is provided for all seven occupations (with norms for more specific job categories available on request). Analyses suggest good construct validity, showing the scales discriminate as anticipated across occupational groups and job categories, and they have the expected relationships with job satisfaction and psychological strain. Conclusions. The measures developed are usable for research purposes across the major occupational groups, with the possible exception of ancillary staff. Further work is desirable to confirm the measurement properties and extend the normative database.

Familiarity breeds content: The impact of exposure to change on employee openness and well-being

This article describes a longitudinal study of how openness to change, job satisfaction, anxiety and depression are affected by exposure to a change situation - in this case, the implementation of new technology and work practices. Measures were taken before the change was fully implemented and again several months later. Employees fell into two groups: those with high exposure to the change and those with low exposure. Longitudinal analysis revealed that greater exposure was directly related to subsequent improvements in openness to change for operational employees, but not for managers and engineers. Exposure was associated with improvements in job satisfaction and depression, irrespective of job type. The effect on job satisfaction, however, could be accounted for by the increased job complexity experienced on the new technology rather than exposure to change per se. Although the impact of exposure on depression became non-significant after controlling for job complexity, the result was marginal. Implications of the role of exposure in the management of change are discussed.

Citizens of the academic community? A societal perspective on leadership in UK higher education

This paper presents a societal perspective on academic leadership by exploring the preoccupations of academics as citizens rather than as employees, managers or individuals. It uses a listening post methodology to ask ‘what is it like to be a citizen of an academic institution in contemporary Britain?’ Three listening posts, comprising 26 participants from 15 higher education institutions, were conducted and analysed. A number of common themes were identified, including a sense of ambiguity and ambivalence about ones relationship with the employing institution and a concern about the fragmentation of academic identities. Whilst this paper contributes towards debates about the marketisation of higher education and the implications for leadership and management practice, its main contribution is to challenge dominant individual and organisational perspectives on leadership by exposing an alternative discourse, based on citizenship, which may offer new opportunities for engagement in the civic life of universities.

Leadership and branding in business schools: a Bourdieusian analysis

This paper explores the growth of corporate branding in higher education (HE) and its use by academic and professional managers as a mechanism for not only enhancing institutional reputation but also for facilitating internal culture change. It uses Bourdieus framework of field, capital and habitus to analyse case studies of branding in two English business schools from the perspectives of academics, management and professional staff and students. The findings reveal a number of tensions and inconsistencies between the experiences of these groups that highlight the contested nature of branding in HE. In an era of rankings, metrics and student fees, it is suggested that branding has become an important means through which HE leaders and managers (re)negotiate the perceived value of different forms of capital and their relative positions within the field. Whilst branding operates at a largely ideological level it has a material effect on the allocation of power and resources within institutions. This is an important development in a sector that has typically privileged scientific capital and contributes towards an understanding of the ways in which leadership is ‘distributed’ within universities.

Leadership in higher education: facts, fictions and futures - introduction to the special issue

Full text of this item is not currently available from the LRA. The published version is available on the publishers website (http://lea.sagepub.com/). doi: 10.1177/1742715009337761

Hybrid configurations of leadership in higher education employer engagement

Recent literature has emphasised the distributed nature of leadership in higher education (HE) and the multitude of actors and factors that contribute towards organisational outcomes. Gronn suggests, however, that rather than using such evidence to provide broad, normative accounts of leadership practice, greater attention should be directed to mapping the ‘hybrid configurations’ through which leadership practice emerges. This article responds to this call through an analysis of employer engagement activities in UK HE. Using a qualitative case study approach, it illustrates the complex, interdependent and contested nature of leadership practice in cross-boundary environments. The article concludes by suggesting how a hybrid perspective may enhance leadership theory and practice in tertiary education.

Leadership Development as a Catalyst for Social Change: Lessons from a Pan-African Programme

In recent years the call for more inclusive, ‘post-heroic’ perspectives on leadership has become increasingly common and relational theories that consider leadership as ‘a social influence process through which emergent coordination (i.e. evolving social order) and change (i.e. new values, attitudes, approaches, behaviours, ideologies, etc.) are constructed and produced’ (Uhl-Bien, 2006, p. 668) are now widely accepted within the academic literature. Despite this, much leadership training and education remains almost exclusively focused on building the ‘human capital’ (skills, knowledge and capability) of individuals in formal leadership roles – what Day (2000) terms ‘leader development’ – rather than the ‘social capital’ (relationships, networks and collective capacity) of the organization and/or group more widely – what Day (ibid.) refers to as ‘leadership development’.

Leadership Development as a Catalyst for Social Change

In this paper we draw on our experiences of researching a pan-African leadership development initiative to explore the manner in which individuals are encouraged to use their learning to facilitate wider social change within their communities. We identify a number of levels at which the programme has an impact (self, family, work, community and society) and argue that it differs from more traditional interventions by the manner in which it encourages participants to reconsider and debate their sense of identity, to engage in collaborative action with those around them, and to facilitate a process of social construction that helps redefine community values and purpose. We conclude by proposing a theoretical model of how initiatives such as this can act as a catalyst for social change by offering a means by which participants and members of their communities can communicate and engage more effectively with one another in pursuit of a common purpose.