A volatile financial environment, greater accountability pressures,
the need for new business models, new technologies and changing
demographics are just some of the challenges facing higher education
leaders in the 21st century. Successfully facing them, finds a new
report released today by ACE, requires new forms of leadership,
particularly the principles of collaborative or shared leadership.
The report, Shared Leadership in Higher Education: Important Lessons from Research and Practice (1 MB PDF),
is co-authored by the University of Southern California’s Adrianna J.
Kezar, professor for higher education and co-director of the Pullias
Center for Higher Education, and Elizabeth M. Holcombe, a research
associate at the Pullias Center.
It is the latest in the ACE Center for Policy Research and Strategy's Viewpoints: Voices from the Field,
a series of independent papers authored by leading social science
researchers designed to explore new and emergent concepts that help
readers reframe or retool their thinking about higher education policy
and practice.
Shared leadership is defined as moving away from the leader/follower
binary, capitalizing on the importance of leaders throughout the
organization—not just those in positions of authority—and creating an
infrastructure that allows organizations to benefit from the leadership
of multiple people. As opposed to shared governance, shared leadership
is more flexible and identifies various individuals from across campus
with relevant expertise, regardless of hierarchy. This allows multiple
perspectives rather than those of a single decision-making body, such as
only faculty or administration.
After reviewing and synthesizing the existing literature on shared
leadership–in and outside of higher education–the authors found that
shared leadership consistently emerges as a key factor for organizations
that were best able to learn, innovate, perform and adapt to the types
of external challenges confronting campuses.
The paper also argues that in order to reap the benefits of shared
leadership, organizations should ensure that such leadership structures
and processes are authentic and thoughtfully designed. Conditions that
promote and sustain shared leadership include team empowerment,
supportive vertical or hierarchical leaders, autonomy, shared purpose or
goals, external coaching, accountability structures, interdependence,
fairness of rewards and shared cognition.
In addition, the authors examined the significance of the research
for leadership development, discuss challenges to this approach, and
offer implications for practice on college and university campuses.
To see the full report, click here (1 MB PDF).