Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Research needs and study objectives
3. Methodology
4. Conceptualisation of shared leadership in the extant literature
5. Development of an integrative definition of shared leadership in project teams
6. Development of a multi-level conceptual model of shared leadership in project teams
7. Boundary conditions of the new model
8. Recommendations for a future research agenda
9. Study limitations and conclusions
Conflict of interest
References
Abstract
Shared leadership has rarely been studied in the project management context, despite its proven performance-enhancing benefits in other management domains. Based on a systematic review of the salient literature from multiple disciplines, this paper develops a new multi-level conceptual model to advance a holistic understanding of how shared leadership develops and how it may impact individual, team, project and wider organisational performance. The conceptual model draws upon the input-mediator-output-input perspective of systems theory, which is wellestablished in the general team literature. The new integrative model identifies the potential multi-level antecedents, proximal team functioning outcomes, and the more distal multi-level outcomes of shared leadership based on findings from the shared leadership literature drawn largely from other domains. Potential boundary conditions of the model are identified. A future research agenda is recommended for empirically testing the new multi-level shared leadership model and its different elements in a diverse range of project contexts.
Introduction
Today’s workplace is becoming increasingly project-centric (Schoper et al., 2018) with projects growing more complex (Bjorvatn and Wald, 2018) and requiring the use of many different team types, including multidisciplinary teams (ScottYoung and Samson, 2008), multiple teams (Gemünden et al., 2018), and sometimes inter-firm teams (Von Danwitz, 2018) to efficiently deliver project objectives. Often these project teams are co-located, but some teams work virtually and are dispersed across time and geographical zones, presenting additional challenges for coordination (Muethel and Hoegl, 2016). It is rare that any single individual will possess all the knowledge and skills necessary to direct or carry the entire project team’s performance (Pearce and Manz, 2005). Effective integrated project teams collaborate to make full use of members’ diverse expertise and contributions (Scott-Young and Samson, 2008), and are able to draw upon the leadership of more than one person to manage and coordinate different tasks (Muethel and Hoegl, 2016).