Running head: Shared Leadership 1
Shared Leadership
Abigail K. Riffe
Liberty University
Author Note
Abigail K. Riffe, Masters of Executive Leadership, Liberty University Online
This writing was prepared for Dr. L. King for Executive Leadership and Management
Contact: akriffe@liberty.edu
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Abstract
Shared leadership is a leadership style that can distribute leadership responsibilities by
maximizing all the resources in an organization by allowing individuals to lead in positions of
their expertise. This leadership model allows room for team learning, creativity and
communication. Shared leadership requires teams to be jointly responsible which creates trust
and willingness to share knowledge within the team. Creativity is essential to any business and
can be cultivated through moderate challenges. Too little of a challenge will create a lack of drive
in team members, however too much challenge also leads to decreased drive in team
performance. Communication is vital to any team dynamic as well. Allowing an atmosphere of
comfortability will greatly increase communication within a team, as well as allowing time for
small group projects.
Keywords: Shared leadership, team learning, creativity, communication, horizontal
leadership
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Shared Leadership
Shared leadership is a relatively new topic (Bartol & Lorinkova, 2020) within the field of
leadership. It delves outside the usual hierarchy of a formal leadership structure, with one head
and many followers, to a more "modern" approach of the responsibilities of a leader dispersed
among multiple team members. Shared leadership is growing in development and implication
within the business workplaces. Despite the newness of such a topic, there are commonalities
throughout the studies of shared leadership. Studies cover the common findings in shared
leadership, such as team learning (Coun, et. al., 2020; Wang, et. al., 2017), and creativity (Hu, et.
al, 2017; Liang, et. al., 2021), to what is needed to make team leadership effective, like
communication (Bartol & Lorinkova, 2020; Cook, et. al., 2020; Van De Mieroop, et. al., 2020;
Wu, et. al., 2020) and creativity (Hu, et. al., 2017; Liang, et. al., 2021), as well as covering the
process of shared leadership and its application in a project (Bartol & Lorinkova, 2020; Cook, et.
al, 2020; Coun, et. al. 2020; Liang, et. al., 2021).
Team Learning in Shared Leadership
Team learning is mentioned in many studies on the topic of shared leadership (Coun, et.
al., 2020; Wang, et. al. 2017). This key piece found in the study of shared leadership features
many hidden nuisances and approaches within team learning. A rather surprising find is that team
learning does not occur naturally in shared leadership. According to Coun, et. al. (2020) shared
leadership, while featuring heightened team learning, does not necessarily naturally occur. This is
connected to communication and team familiarity. Team members may hesitate to reveal
information for fear of losing their "power" within a team (Coun, et. al., 2020, p. 3). In shared
leadership each person has their own responsibility in completing a project. What makes each
member valuable may be perceived as the information they hold to complete the project. When a
team member willingly gives this up, they are afraid of removing their importance and
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contribution to the team and may avoid sharing information with the team. This mental block
that surrounds shared leadership could inhibit team learning. The typical thought surrounding
leadership and power within a group holds the basis of relative knowledge compared to that of
co-workers. This can be overcome with a purposeful vulnerability among team members, which
fosters relationships through familiarity, good communication, and social support from the rest of
the team members.
Despite necessary effort to accomplish the vulnerability needed for team learning, shared
leadership presents the perfect atmosphere to cultivate team learning. This is due to the peer-
centered focus of shared leadership. The atmosphere of the team encourages employees to
become jointly responsible, which may contribute to the creation of a climate of trust that is
conducive to cooperation and that promotes employees' willingness to share knowledge. (Coun,
et. al., 2020). Both shared leadership and team learning foster the same habits and necessary
forces for both to be successful, such as: communication, trust, coordination among members,
etc. (Wang, et. al., 2017, p. 2).
Creativity in Shared Leadership
Creativity is a must within any business scape or team, but is especially crucial and
present in shared leadership situations. While creativity holds its challenges, the atmosphere of
shared leadership leads to heightened creativity. According to Hu, et. al (2017) creativity is best
cultivated with moderate challenge. When faced with too little challenge, the team finds no drive
or purpose, and therefore leads to a lull in creativity. On the other hand, too much challenge leads
to decreased drive as well. This is due to potential "cognitive overload" that the team members
may face and therefore be apt to abandon any thoughts of creativity due to mental exhaustion.
Creativity takes a careful balance, but is rewarding when the correct pressure is found.
Lyndon, et. al. (2020) confirms the need for conflict and challenge for enhanced
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creativity as well as the need for cognitive trust and connection among team members, which are
also necessary for shared leadership in general. A formal management or leadership structure
inhibits creative processes because it produces a hierarchy that must be followed with the focus
on not overstepping boundaries of their superior. Creativity is found in peer-centered teams
where the members are equal, and therefore ideas presented are all treated with the same clout
and respect without fear or rejection for being out of line. This leads to the conclusion that
creativity is also a highly concentrated product of an atmosphere of shared leadership. "It is
expected that shared leadership will lead to higher team creativity, . . ." (Lyndon, et. al., 2020, p.
5).
Creativity, while being prominent in team settings, is also highly personal. Liang, et. al
(2021) delves into the personal focus of creativity in a shared leadership team. With the decisions
and personal representation, teams find more value in creativity because it highlights personal
empowerment. Creativity serves the team through ownership on a project. It is their ideas present
and showcased, which gives them pride in their work and encourages creativity.
Communication in Shared Leadership
Communication is perhaps the most vital in a shared leadership setting. Whereas formal
leadership has communication spreading from the leader out, shared leadership features a group
focus on communication, branching through the team members for effective communication.
There isn't a single hub, boss, or director in shared leadership, but many.
Effective communication is accomplished through many applications, such as
comfortability within the team. Comfortability within a team is vital to many different aspects of
the team learning, communication, and growth (Bartol & Lorinkova, 2020; Cook, et. al, 2020;
Hu, et. al., 2017; Lyndon, et. al. 2020; Wu, et. al, 2020). Bartol and Lorinkova (2020) discussed
the benefits of team familiarity as well as social support. In the study, both of these factors
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benefited the team in their project, helping to encourage communication. Cook et. al. (2020)
completed a study comparing the shared leadership approach in both animals and humans,
finding that comfortability was a huge asset and benefit to the group, regardless of its species.
Hu, et. al (2017) examined the need for team trust, which is cultivated through communication
and familiarity on a team. Comfortability in a team was a contender with many of the shared
leadership studies and articles, thus proving the importance in a shared leadership setting.
Communication also appears better in smaller settings/teams. Bartol and Lorinkova's
chart (2020, p. 18) shows a substantial difference in impact based on the team size. The study
found that those with smaller team sizes typically had better communication due to the more
intimate setting, less people to communicate to, and bigger sense of unity among the team
members. stronger relationships can be found in smaller teams because of our human nature and
desire for relationships. When there are less people to connect with, more emphasis can be
placed on those that are necessary to connect with, and thus deeper relationships and better
communication.
A current example of shared leadership and its communication application is Apple, inc.,
which features a blend of both formal and informal leadership structure among their company.
Apple, inc. limited the number of managers, according to Podolny and Hansen (2020, p. 36);
"Apple has been quite disciplined about limiting the number of senior positions to minimize how
many leaders must be involved in any cross-functional activity." This change was for the benefit
of cultivating better communication among the floor level employees all the way to the CEO,
Steve Jobs. Apple, inc. proves how successful this company style is within its management.
Effective communication is needed in any organization and is not necessarily found in more
communicators, per se.
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Application of Team Leadership in a Project
Team leadership, while being a structure that disperses responsibility, also sees a certain
ebb and flow to the application within a project, as well as application among many opposite
environments. Shared leadership goes beyond the formal leadership and management roles to
match the shifting and personal structure of today's business world to meet the needs of whatever
project, team, or application are needed. Bartol and Lorinkova (2020, p. 23) concluded their
study of the application of shared leadership in the form of charts. These charts showed "an
inverted U-shape." This shape reflected the usage of shared leadership, showing a peak of
application in the middle of the project, with a progression and transgression to and from the
middle mark. Bartol and Lorinkova (2020) concluded that this flow was an accurate
representation of shared leadership in a team.
Cook et. al. (2020) conducted a study on both animals and humans in groups, discovering
that in all hierarchies, there was a presence of shared leadership. Whether the team be conducted
by a formal leader or not, there were still aspects of shared leadership, mainly the dispersal of
responsibilities, present (Cook, et. al, 2020; Coun, et. al, 2020; Liang, et. al, 2021; Van De
Mieroop, et. al, 2020). However, Zhu, et al. (2018, p. 7) prefers a different term altogether for
shared leadership present in a vertically structured leadership environment. This new term is
"team leadership", and is the presence of shared leadership in formal structures. Zhu, et. al,
(2018, p. 7) explains how shared leadership falls under this category, yet is not quite the same;
"Thus, shared leadership and team leadership are related but distinct."
Conclusion
The concept of shared leadership remains a relatively new topic of study, yet one that is
growing in today's business industry. Companies are implementing this lack of formal structure
to help vitalize creativity, communication, and team empowerment. Many of these studies delve
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into the application of shared leadership, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of this concept.
The strengths of shared leadership lie in the ease of implementation, and the increased
team engagement. the implementation is possible even with formal hierarchies, making this
concept easy to insert into an existing company. Shared leadership also focuses on the
individuals by encouraging communication, social support, and creativity in the shared
environment. Weaknesses reside in the potential drawback of team learning, where information
may be withheld to keep power in a team. Another potential weakness could be in the dismissal
of all collaboration after an established pattern of jobs. This cancels the concept of shared
leadership by simply assigning roles and responsibilities to each individual, without the need to
collaborate beyond the sole responsibilities.
All studies have their drawbacks and fail to include all aspects of a topic. While these
studies have been conducted and give a wide range of knowledge, with the newness of such a
concept, there lacks extensive history and engagement on shared leadership, or at least shared
leadership titled in that particular way. For this reason, the missing factors of this topic lie in
what hasn't been realized/studied yet. Shared leadership also glances over an important facet in
what exactly is shared. While one can assume what is conducted and dispersed, this varies with
each project and remains a flighty topic, and unable to confirm exactly what is to be shared in
each project.
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References
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Cook, A., Zill, A., & Meyer, B. (2020). Observing leadership as behavior in teams and herds –
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Coun, M., Peters, P., & Blomme, R. (2019). ‘Let's share!’ the mediating role of employees'
self-determination in the relationship between transformational and shared leadership and
perceived knowledge sharing among peers. European Management Journal, 37(4),
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ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print) https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-05-2019-0262
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