Isolated cases or widespread practice? The occurence of sharing managers in Swedish working life

Abstract

In investigating whether shared leadership can be tracked on a work-life level, this study aims to contribute knowledge about how common shared leadership is among managers in Sweden. A search was made for equal assumption of responsibilities and, specifically, for joint leadership, i.e. a formal mandate for decision-making affecting the full range of responsibilities attaching to the managerial post. The results show that shared leadership is tracked on a work-life level, and that the most far-reaching form joint leadership was found among 5 % of the managers. Thus, the phenomenon cannot be ignored as anecdotal. This adds relevance to influencing perceptions of leadership towards more pluralism, in which questions of leadership naturally incorporate more interactive variations than does the hitherto accepted theory of singular leadership.

Together as One: Shared Leadership Between Managers

“…From research into today's working life, there is empirical evidence that managerial positions are successfully shared (e.g., Choi et al, 2012;Döös et al, 2003b;Eckman, 2007;Erlingsdóttir, 2010;Gronn & Hamilton, 2004;O'Toole et al, 2002;Wilhelmson et al, 2006). Also, shared leadership between managers has, in Sweden, been found to exist broadly in working life and thus cannot be ignored as anecdotal (Döös et al, 2012). However, we still witness both ignorance of and resistance to the idea of shared leadership within a managerial position (e.g., Court, 2004;Döös et al, 2013;O'Toole et al, 2002).…”

“…One reason to choose the term shared is that it embraces, but is not restricted to, pair leadership. Thus, the two-person case is included (Pearce & Conger, 2003a), which is the commonest number of sharers among managers who also share in larger constellations (Döös et al, 2012). In addition, shared is open to findings from studies that point to the potential of sharing managers to empower, and thereby share leadership, also with their co-workers (Döös et al, 2003a;Erlingsdóttir, 2010).…”

“…Future research has several questions left to answer in order to further understand the relatively widespread (Döös et al, 2012) but under-researched issue of shared leadership between managers. Of particular interest is to further study the experiences of a 'multi-shared leadership' between nurse managers that has emerged as an organisational solution in highly specialised intensive health care (Vinell, 2013).…”

Fifty-five years of managerial shared leadership research: A review of an empirical field

“…It surprised us that vertically invited leadership was seldom the study focus. Rather, it seemed hidden in informality as a frequent in-praxis solution (Döös et al, 2012).…”

Principle of Singularity

“…On the other hand, the reason that alternative forms of leadership were not identified as potential options during the legislative process reflects uninformed notions of leadership. This is an expression of the fact that shared leadership between managers is an immature phenomenon in society; there is a lack of social agreement about what it is (Döös, Backström, Melin, & Wilhelmson, 2012;Yankelovich, 1991). Knowledge provided by research has not been taken aboard on a broad front and have therefore not strongly affected society.…”