Shared Leadership

Why the Increased Interest in Shared Leadership?

Globalization of markets, hypercompetition, and shortened product life cycles are but a few of the forces driving organizations toward new modes of organizing. At present, the fastest-growing type of organizational unit is the team, specifically the temporary cross-functional team, which is valued for its flexibility and its ability to generate solutions to problems faster than traditional organizational units—flexibility and speed being of the essence in a hypercompetitive globalized market. What distinguishes a team of this type from traditional organizational units is the absence of formal hierarchical authority. While a cross-functional team may have an appointed team leader, this individual is quite commonly a peer, and is treated as such. Outside of the team, the team leader often does not possess [Page 1419]hierarchical authority over other members of the team. Moreover, because cross-functional teams bring people with diverse backgrounds and types of expertise together for a common purpose, the leader is often at a knowledge disadvantage—that is, his or her expertise normally represents only one of the numerous functional specialties brought to the task at hand. Thus, the team leader is highly dependent upon the expertise of the other team members. Leadership in these types of settings is therefore determined by an individual's capacity to influence peers and by the needs of the team in any given situation. Because the team members bring unique perspectives, knowledge, and capabilities to the team, at various crossroads in the team's life, there are moments when each may be called upon to provide leadership.

Shared leadership is also common in virtual teams, another sort of team that is popular at present. Virtual teams consist of individuals collaborating and working from geographically dispersed locations. Members may occasionally meet in person, but normally they rely on modern communication technology (e-mail, conferences in chat rooms, and so forth) for interaction. Importantly, research has shown that technology-mediated communication differs from face-to-face communication: Communication becomes depersonalized and more taskfocused in technology-mediated team environments. When communication is more focused on the task and less preoccupied with authority relationships, leadership can be shared by several team members, with each providing leadership for different components of the team's tasks.

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