Team Leadership

Team leadership broadly refers to leadership that is distributed across multiple members of a group or organization. Team leadership has been studied in business and organizational or social psychology; some research refers to the notion of a group orientation to leadership using terms such as shared leadership, which includes multiple approaches, such as distributed leadership, connective leadership, networked leadership, and collaborative leadership. In the context of higher education, team leadership has particular relevance to individuals and institutions seeking to tackle complicated issues affecting their students, faculty, and staff. This entry provides an overview of team leadership, then explores how it works, its benefits and challenges, and its application in higher education.