"The When, How and Who of Shared Leadership"

In a steadily growing body of scholarly literature, authors have turned to the notion of “shared leadership” as a means of addressing the current state of empowered organizational team leadership. Studying leadership as a shared phenomenon embraces the uniqueness of operating in autonomous, empowered teams by considering task complexity and the diverse knowledge, skills, and abilities of members embedded within this context. While much has been learned in recent years, we feel that there are a number of missing dimensions that are critical to a productive discourse on the topic of shared leadership within the organizational behavior literature. First, little research has attempted to identify the antecedent conditions that give rise to shared leadership. While general team states have been shown to predict shared leadership, we have little understanding of the rational underpinnings of the phenomenon. Second, we have an incomplete understanding of the influences of and on leadership networks. Social network perspectives provide a rich understanding of shared leadership relationships, however, little is known about how they form or the extent of their consequences. Finally, shared leadership manifests across a number of team settings and as more organizations employ virtual means of work communication, it is critical to understand how leadership develops when employees are not co-located. The proposed symposium includes four presentations on papers that are pushing the boundaries of what we know about shared leadership by attempting to answer the 'when, how and who' of shared leadership. Team Personality Composition and Shared Leadership in Teams Presenter: Julia E. Hoch; California State U., Northridge Shared Leadership and Conflict: Examining the Effects on Virtual Team Performance Presenter: Julia Eisenberg; Pace U. Presenter: Aparna Krishnan; Rutgers U. The Benefits of being Holey? The Nature and Effects of Employees' Leadership Ego-Networks Presenter: Ned Wellman; Arizona State U. Presenter: Beth Schinoff; Arizona State U. Presenter: Emily Huang; Hong Kong Baptist U. Presenter: Peter Niu; U. of International Business and Economics Interactive Multilevel Effects of Gender and climate on Shared Leadership in Teams Presenter: Michael Kukenberger; U. of New Hampshire Presenter: Lauren D'Innocenzo; Drexel U. Presenter: Adam Pearson; Pomona College