Leadership, Distributed

Educational researchers have long examined the link between the importance of principal leadership and student achievement, concluding that successful educational leaders have a powerful influence on the effectiveness of the school and student learning. In fact, school leadership has been found to have a significant impact on student learning, second only to the effects of the quality of curriculum and teachers' instruction.

Until recently, most research assumed that leadership must come from the school principal. For decades, studies on leadership have documented specific leader traits and behaviors, focusing on the top of the hierarchical organization—the principal. There is now much greater emphasis placed on the idea of distributed leadership, shared by multiple individuals at different levels of the school organization.

The idea that a single “hero” leader can lead and transform a school alone has become obsolete. The task of leading today's schools has become so multifaceted and complex that a single person cannot be expected to accomplish this alone. More than two decades of school reform has continually added to the workload and responsibility of the principal.

The multitude of demands placed on principals' time draws resources away from a focus on curriculum [Page 567]and instruction, as numerous tasks from the school, district, state, and federal government require the attention and consideration of school leaders. Because of this, many educational researchers and policymakers believe that school leadership today should be distributed throughout the organization, rather than focused on a single individual.

Distributed leadership is currently a buzzword in educational circles, and in the past few years has been used increasingly in discussions about school leadership. As attention to this perspective grows, so does its research base and empirical support. However, there seems to be little agreement as to the meaning of the term, and it lacks a widely accepted definition.

Some may define distributed leadership as simply the redistribution of the principal's responsibilities to other staff members. Other views move beyond this simplistic analysis and call for a fundamental change in organizational thinking, redefining school leadership as the responsibility of all in a school.

A fruitful way of considering distributed leadership is that it is a way of thinking about leadership, rather than a new technique of practice. Distributed leadership seeks expertise throughout an organization, rather than focusing it upon a single individual or individuals in a formal position or role. So the idea is that school leadership should be viewed as the cumulative activities of a broad set of leaders, both formal and informal, within a school, rather than as the work of one individual—such as the principal.

Distributed leadership is characterized as a form of shared or collective leadership in which expertise is developed by working collaboratively. The rationale is that in a knowledge-intensive situation found in schools, there is no way to perform tasks of great complexity without widely dispersing the responsibility for performance among various roles. Distributed leadership becomes the focal point that provides a common frame of values for performance.

This does not, however, suggest that there is no one responsible for the overall performance of the school. The job of the principal in a distributed environment is to hold the pieces together and maintain a productive relationship between the actors.

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