Shared Leadership

Hoch, J. (2010). Is the most effective team leadership shared? The impact of shared leadership, age diversity, and coordination on team performance. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 9(3), 105-116. Retrieved from PsycINFO database. (2010-24197-001)

Today many organizations are faced with uncertainty, fast changing environments, globalization and increasingly complex work tasks. As a result they use team based structures to adapt to changes. This has also lead to the challenge of find the best ways to manage these structures. Many scholars have argued for shared leadership because it provides better solutions to team management than classical or hierarchal leadership approaches.

Studies have shown that shared leadership enhances team and organizational performance. It is also defined as “an emergent team property that results from the distribution of leadership influences across multiple team members” (Hoch, 2010). It also consists of an interaction between among individuals which leads to the achievement of the organization’s goals.

Previous research on shared leadership has focused on the direct effects of it. Also variables such as age diversity and coordination have been shown to have an effect on shared leadership. One study researched seventy one management teams and found that shared leadership increased team effectiveness. These results were perceived by the team managers, members and also customers of each organization. Another study used twenty eight virtual teams and found a positive relationship between shared leadership and team processes. In most settings, the impact of shared leadership has been found to exceed the impact of hierarchical leadership in predicting team and organizational outcomes (Hoch, 2010).

In Hoch’s research study, four hypotheses were developed. Hypothesis one states: “Shared leadership will relate positively to team performance.” Hypothesis two states: “Age diversity will moderate the relationship between shared...