Untangling collegiality and distributed leadership: Equality versus utility. A perspective piece

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Abstract

Both ‘collegiality’ and ‘distributed leadership’ have, as terms, occasioned a good deal of debate. Conceptually elastic, they are often used interchangeably, or not appreciated as embodying a range of leadership styles and relationships. Spurred by an unanswered query from a research project, this theoretical article attempts to clarify what the two words mean – especially in relation to each other. Collegiality is defined as an approach, characterised by equality, whereas distributed leadership is seen to be much more closely aligned to the goals of a team or organisation, thus making it more to do with utility. While formal distributed leadership is indifferent to collegiality - although not hostile to it - informal distributed leadership, it is argued, requires collegiality to be in place before it can exist, much less thrive.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages6
JournalManagement in Education
Early online date17 Nov 2021
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 17 Nov 2021
Externally publishedYes

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