Rethinking Distributed Leadership: Dimensions, Antecedents and Team Effectiveness

Purpose – Studies of distributed leadership (DL) are increasing, but are not systematic, often taking a normative position emphasizing the superiority of DL to solo leadership and using the term in an imprecise way. This paper aims to re-conceptualize DL and develop a systematic framework to identify dimensions of DL and their association with team effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a comprehensive review of existing literature, this paper develops a framework of DL and team effectiveness by deriving eight research propositions. Findings – The paper identifies four main dimensions of DL: shared, conjoint, fragmented, and dispersed leadership, each of which represents a specific pattern of DL activities. A Leader-Task-Context framework is developed to analyze outcomes of DL dimensions in different settings. The eight propositions developed clearly identify where DL can be best applied, how particular configurations of DL affect team performance, and in what situations it is most effective. Originality/value – This paper has made several contributions. First, we address the question of what constitutes DL by conceptualizing its dimensions. Second, we extend the DL literature by arguing and modeling how different contexts influence the fulfillment of DL. Third, we develop an analytical framework of DL – the “Leader-Task-Context” (LTC) framework - to help build a foundation and guide further research on the relationships between DL and team performance.