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Original Article

Shared Leadership in Teams

A Matter of Distribution

Published Online:February 11, 2011https://doi.org/10.1027/1866-5888/a000017

Abstract

Shared leadership is an emergent team process defined by the distribution of leadership functions among multiple team members. Past empirical research on shared leadership has operationalized it as the overall quantity of leadership in the team, neglecting the essence of the conceptual definition – the distribution of leadership. In order to align the conceptual definition with an operational one, we examined shared leadership as network centralization using social network analysis. Using this operational definition, shared leadership was positively related to team performance. Additionally, longitudinal analyses revealed that shared leadership increased over time and was differentially related to antecedents of trust and team collectivism.

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