Distributed leadership emerged in the early 2000s from sociological, cognitive, psychological, and anthropological theories, most importantly distributed cognition and activity theory, though also influenced by wengers communities of practice. Therefore, it can be argued that shared leadership and distributed leadership approaches are separate leadership approaches and that it is not suitable to use them interchangeably, although they share. Apr 18, 2011 distributed leadership is not something done by an individual to others, or a set of individual actions through which people contribute to a group or organization. A third major adaptation in the nature of school leadership is the attention to distributed leadership. Enable others to step up, adjust, and make decisions about the future of your project, team, organization, or community. Jul 04, 20 many different words are often used to describe a similar concept. It is generally agreed, that dist ributed leadership is better described than defined as it is context specific. In a university setting, distributive leadership focuses upon the collegial sharing of knowledge, practice and re. Distributed leadership distributed leadership is first and foremost about leadership practice rather than leaders or their roles, functions, routines, and structures. Our early case studies have identified five common elements that seem to characterize these systems. Distributed leadership, however, is not the only theory or approach to call for such a reframing of how we understand leadership. This paper aims to provide an overview of the literature concerning distributed leadership and organisational change. Distributed leadership is a framework for understanding how the work of leadership is shared within complex organizations. The definition and theory behind this new leadership approach posted on july 30, 2015 by aai staff posted in uncategorized 1 comment v many companies are moving away from old structures that involve topdown leadership in favor of a newer approach called distributed leadership.
Distributive leadership june 20 2 linkedin slideshare. The first known reference to distributed leadership was in the field of social psychology in the early1950s. Distributed leadership is not something done by an individual to others, or a set of individual actions through which people contribute to a group or organization. Distributed leadership in early years and childcare iriss. The distributed leadership theory holds that educational leadership is often not held in one person, but is instead distributed among multiple individuals. Advancing student learning through distributed instructional leadership. Grounded in case studies and full of practical tools, this book lays out a framework for building strategic, collaborative, and instructionallyfocused teams. Nov 20, 2018 distributed leadership is a framework for understanding how the work of leadership is shared within complex organizations. In the last half decade, distributed leadership is a concept that has been much written about although relatively little researched. Distributed leadership theory is an emerging conceptualization that relies on the guidance and direction of multiple human resources.
Download fulltext pdf distributed leadership article pdf available in the educational forum 692. Macbeath, in international encyclopedia of education third edition, 2010. Within schools, leadership is most effective when its distributed among a team of individuals with different skillsets and experiences but a shared mission to spark and sustain a schoolwide culture of learning and improved outcomes for students. The purpose of distributed leadership is to increase the leadership capacity within a school so that the school can improve and grow in an authentic manner, with no tricks, stunts or gameplaying. Building on best practices and lessons learned, distributed leadership in schools shows educators how to design and implement distributed leadership to effectively address challenges in their schools. Many different words are often used to describe a similar concept. You want to have it distributed throughout the company to give people directed responsibilities on tasks for which they are responsible. Distributed leadership, different from the focus in the 1990s on the structural notion of shared leadership, focuses on the interactions and actions of the principal and staff that move school improvement forward spillane, 2006. In about a decade the theory of distributed leadership has moved from a tool to better understand the ecology of leadership to a widely prescribed practice. Building on activity theory and theories of distributed cognition, this paper develops a distributed perspective on school leadership as a frame for studying leadership practice, arguing that leadership practice is constituted in the interaction of school leaders, followers, and the situation. For our purposes here, lets use the term shared leadership to refer to that form of leadership where leadership is essentially conceived of as an activity that can be shared or distributed among the members of an organization or group depending on the needs of the situation and the capabilities of the people involved. In this section, the nature of distributed leadership is described, a conceptual model is presented and a taxonomy suggested.
Distributed leadership is a result of reflecting the cognizance on organizational management regarding the view that leadership roles and positions should be shared. Understanding distributed leadership in this section, the nature of distributed leadership is described, a conceptual model is presented and a taxonomy suggested. Great leadership is at the heart of every highquality public school. Alternative approaches for studying shared and distributed leadership abstract scholars hold different perspectives about leadership that are not limited to a formally appointed leader. Distributed leadership can have impacts on traditional hierarchical leadership models, and the leaders who lie within. The emphasis is upon interdependent interaction and practice rather than individual and independent actions associated with those with formal leadership roles or. Distributed leadership richard bolden the concept of distributed leadership has become popular in recent years as an alternative to models of leadership that concern themselves primarily with the attributes and behaviours of individual leaders e. Distributed leadership is a conceptual and analytical approach to understanding how the work of leadership takes place among the people and in context of a complex organization. The concept then lay dormant for more than three decades until it surfaced briefly once again in social psychology, and then again in the early1990s in organisation theory. She notes that distributed leadership can be seen as part of a wider discussion of shared leadership. May 17, 2019 the distributed leadership theory holds that educational leadership is often not held in one person, but is instead distributed among multiple individuals.
There is a relationship between shared leadership and distributed leadership, but this relationship is not very distinctive. Trait theory, the first of leadership theories, proposes the behaviors that separate leaders from. The special 40th anniversary issue of the journal, published in 2012, featured a discussion of the distinction between solo and distributed leadership, by megan crawford. It is suggested that opportunities to contribute to leadership are not equal and that distributed leadership remains silent on persistent structural barriers. Principles of the distributed leadership theory the classroom.
It allows a school to genuinely become a more effective educational institution as a result of leaders within it collectively pulling in the same. You want to have it distributed throughout the company to give people directed responsibilities on. Sep 29, 2014 distributed leadership means mobilising leadership expertise at all levels in the school in order to generate more opportunities for change and to build the capacity for improvement. The theory s confusions, contradictions and utopian depictions are argued to be a profoundly political phenomenon, replete with the uses and abuses of power.
That is to say, distributed leadership addresses the entirety of human resources in organizations, especially the academic staff in educational organizations as leaders. Dec 19, 2017 distributed leadership has been identified as a way of creating the conditions for systems leadership across the childcare and early years sector, which is a way of improving practice on a large scale. Leadership practice centers not only on what people do, but how and why they do it. However, most conceptions of distributed leadership tend to be much broader than this. Analysis of the relationship between shared leadership and. Hopes that the transformation of schools lies with exceptional leaders have proved both unrealistic and unsustainable. Though they are important considerations, leadership practice is still the starting point. In a university setting, distributive leadership focuses upon the. Distributed leadership is a recent antidote, or more correctly a series of antidotes, to the work in the heroics of. Transform the leadership culture from reliance on commandandcontrol. Alternative approaches for studying shared and distributed. Though developed and primarily used in education research, it has since been applied to other domains, including business and even tourism. Distributed leadership means mobilising leadership expertise at all levels in the school in order to generate more opportunities for change and to build the capacity for improvement.
This view of leadership allows the organization to. A body of leadership has multiple individuals who have the tools and skills to contribute to the success of the organization. It pushes the locus of leadership beyond principals, and senior managers, extending leadership roles spillane, 2006 to middle management and. Rather than focus on characteristics of the individual leader or features of. Distributive leadership distributive leadership focuses on collaboration, shared purpose, responsibility and recognition of leadership irrespective of role or position within an organisation. Apr 29, 2011 distributive leadership distributive leadership focuses on collaboration, shared purpose, responsibility and recognition of leadership irrespective of role or position within an organisation. Pdf distributed leadership has caught the attention of researchers, policymakers practitioners and educational reformers spillane, 2006. A toolkit for high school leadership teams june 2010 this toolkit was written by carolyn kelley, university of wisconsinmadison, for the wisconsin urban school leadership project and was funded by a grant to the state of wisconsin from the wallace foundation.
It resides not solely in the individual at the top, but in every person at entry level who, in one way or another, acts as a leader goleman, 2002 it is argued that distributed leadership is not a style of leadership as transformational, transactional but a method petrov 2006. This article considers how to account for its spread and dominance and what purpose it serves. Relationship between distributed leadership and affective commitment john matthew trammell school of education, carson newman university april 2016 the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between distributed leadership and teacher affective commitment in public and private schools. Rethinking distributed leadership white rose research online. Before leaders can step outside their organisation to support other organisations or wider sector objectives. This can have large impacts, both physically and psychologically, on designated authority. For example, organizations with high distributed leadership scores 16 to 21 will likely already be practicing crossgenerational leadership to some degree, or movement in that direction will be easier than for those organizations with lower distributed leadership scores 0 to 10. Understanding leadership practice is imperative if research is to generateusableknowledge aboutand forschool leadership. Distributed leadership an overview sciencedirect topics. However, shared leadership definitions often include the term. She notes that distributed leadership can be seen as part of.
One of the most restricted definitions of distributed leadership is that of kayworth and leidner 2000, who define distributed leadership as leadership from a remote physical location, using only technological means of communication email, webbased etc. The power of embracing leadership as a shared process increase the collective capacity for leadership in your organization or community. Principles of the distributed leadership theory the. Based on the work undertaken by the synergies in distributed leadership project team, the following description was developed in terms of its principal. Within schools, leadership is most effective when its distributed among a team of individuals with different skillsets and experiences but a shared mission to spark and sustain a schoolwide culture of. Common elements of distributed leadership systems while many organizations are experimenting with selected distributed leadership practices, some have woven together multiple practices into broader distributed leadership systems. Of the abundance of terms used to describe this phenomenon, shared and distributed are the most prevalent. Distributed leadership in educational institutions eric. Building on our performing arts programs interest in generational change with the nonprofit arts sector, the hewlett foundation commissioned open mind consulting and informing change to develop a set of case studies examining how some nonprofit organizations are. To what extent is leadership distributed according to school leaders and teachers.
Study identified interdepen dency as the primary charac teristic of interactions among leaders. Distributed leadership theory is an emerging conceptualization that relies on the guidance. For our purposes here, lets use the term shared leadership to refer to that form of leadership where leadership is essentially conceived of as an activity that can be shared or distributed among the members of an organization or group depending on the needs of. It is the leadership idea of the moment, even though its genesis can be traced back to the field of organizational theory in the mid 1960s barnard. As creation of new distributed leadership roles and patterns was a consistent. The main purpose of the paper is to consider the empirical evidence that highlights a relationship between distributed leadership and organisational outcomes. The idea of leadership as distributed across multiple people and situations has proven to be a more useful framework for understanding the realities of schools and how they might be improved.
91 45 512 1315 113 418 465 1378 734 799 1242 385 304 917 879 1123 1460 226 1169 240 408 593 701 642 1223 531 660 869 371 351 1180 897 335 300 722 478