Looking within: a longitudinal qualitative analysis of shared leadership behaviours in organisational teams

Abstract

Purpose To date, empirical research on shared leadership (SL) has been dominated by quantitative studies of antecedents and outcomes, frequently in simulated environments. Consequently, there have been few authentic accounts of how SL is practiced within organisational teams. Underpinned by shared leadership theory and leadership behaviour theory, this paper aims to provide a fine-grained view of the SL behaviours exhibited by team members over time, in five organisational teams in Ireland. Design/methodology/approach This longitudinal qualitative study uses critical incident technique, semi-structured interviews and participant diaries to explore SL behaviours emerging in five teams over time. Findings SL became widespread over time in each team, with almost all (96%) team members exhibiting SL behaviours. Ten different leadership behaviours were exhibited, indicating that SL permits a wide variety of leadership behaviours to be expressed. Some leadership functions were rarely or never fulfilled by team members (team composition, performance monitoring and resource allocation), suggesting that these leadership behaviours are not amenable to sharing. Practical implications This paper provides an insight into how SL could be used to increase the leadership capacity in team-based organisations. Originality/value This paper adds depth to the understanding of SL, revealing the specific behaviours underlying this approach, expanding our understanding of the micro-dynamics at play in SL processes.

Sharing leadership behaviors in virtual teams: effects of shared leadership behaviors on team member satisfaction and productivity

“…Results show that STOL behaviors have a significant positive impact, but relations-oriented leadership behaviors have a significant negative effect and therefore should not be shared among team members and might better be executed by a transformational leading manager. The findings support the assumption that a more comprehensive leadership model is needed that considers and combines different leadership approaches for leading virtual teams (Eisenberg et al , 2019; Sweeney, 2022). For this reason, a theoretical framework should be developed that takes into account that the concept of shared leadership is not an alternative model to hierarchical leadership but can be a relevant concept as a solution approach next to hierarchical leadership to successfully lead virtual teams with respect to task- and relations-oriented leadership challenges.…”

“…Some theoretical implications to expand the understanding about the shared leadership theory, especially focusing on virtual teams, can be derived from the method and the results of this study. The very first is the extension of research on recent studies on shared leadership behaviors (Sweeney, 2022) because so far shared leadership is mostly operationalized with the help of the social network approach or the aggregation approach (Zhu et al , 2018), which in particular provides information about the leadership structure and the characteristics of the leadership style at team level. Grille and Kauffeld (2015) developed a questionnaire measuring effective shared leadership behavior to rate the extent to which shared leadership was executed by the team on a six-point agreement scale.…”

“…As these studies have so far examined shared leadership in virtual teams primarily from a structural perspective, there is a need for further research on behavioral dimensions of leadership to get more insights on which exact leadership behaviors are typically shared in virtual settings and which should continue to be adopted by the leader. Initial studies examining other than virtual team settings indicate that research on behavioral dimensions of shared leadership provides relevant insights into which task- and relations-oriented leadership behaviors are shared within the team (Sweeney, 2022) and how they influence team performance (Han et al , 2021). Whereas Sweeney (2022) did a qualitative analysis on shared leadership behaviors emerging in teams, Han et al (2021) showed that sharing relations-oriented leadership (SROL) behaviors has positive effects on team outcomes mediated through team psychological capital, whereas sharing task-oriented leadership (STOL) behaviors has negative effects on team outcomes.…”

“…Initial studies examining other than virtual team settings indicate that research on behavioral dimensions of shared leadership provides relevant insights into which task- and relations-oriented leadership behaviors are shared within the team (Sweeney, 2022) and how they influence team performance (Han et al , 2021). Whereas Sweeney (2022) did a qualitative analysis on shared leadership behaviors emerging in teams, Han et al (2021) showed that sharing relations-oriented leadership (SROL) behaviors has positive effects on team outcomes mediated through team psychological capital, whereas sharing task-oriented leadership (STOL) behaviors has negative effects on team outcomes. More research is needed following these studies to gain further insights into how sharing leadership behaviors can have different effects on outcomes, especially for virtual team settings, as there are so far no studies examining behavioral dimensions of shared leadership in this context.…”

“…Overall, shared leadership is mostly analyzed either from the perspective of a social network, which answers the question of who leads, or from the perspective of leadership style, which answers the question on what form of leadership style is being used (Carson et al , 2007; Zhu et al , 2018). Sweeney (2022) captured the frequency of shared leadership behaviors taken over by team members and found that task-oriented leadership behaviors like coordinating leadership tasks are shared among team members, as are relations-oriented leadership behaviors such as providing support and consideration to others within a team. A study by Han et al (2021) found that STOL tasks is negatively associated with team performance, while SROL tasks is positively associated with team performance mediated through team psychological capital, which describes a form of job and personal resources.…”