SHARED LEADERSHIP, ROLE SHARING & TEAM INNOVATION

Abstract

The growing interest in shared leadership highlights its benefits for a team’s performance. However, it is not clear what exactly is shared in terms of leadership within a team and how it is shared. In order to address the question on “what” is shared, I conducted a quantitative study on 89 business venture teams in Indonesia by studying the effect of two types of leadership roles - Organizer and Challenger, on team innovation. I address the question on “how” leadership is shared by conducting a qualitative content analysis of data collected through team creativity task done via WhatsApp by over 45 teams of working professionals in Singapore. The research opens up another perspective of looking at shared leadership through the lens of fulfilment of need for leadership, be it by a single or multiple leaders.