Promoting Shared Leadership

Shared leadership is considered a promising concept that meets the increased complexity of working life. Researchers and practitioners therefore need to know which factors might advance the development of shared leadership. Contributing to the yet limited amount of empirical research on shared leadership antecedents, this study investigates the impact of variables from different types of antecedents suggested in literature (i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic facilitators and vertical leadership). It relies on data from 328 team members nested in 67 work teams and their respective team leaders. Multilevel analyses confirmed that each team member’s perceptions of psychological empowerment as an intrinsic factor, and perceptions of being fairly rewarded as extrinsic factor, were associated with shared leadership. At the team level, the team leader’s behavior had differential effects on shared leadership within the team: Team members seem to adopt leadership behavior demonstrated by their team leader only as long as they perceive this team leader to be prototypical of the team. Results provide conclusions for practitioners and indicate starting points for future empirical research.