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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Distributed Leadership for Interconnected Worlds

subject

description

The technological advancements in the second half of the previous century generated the potential for participatory decision making in organizational and governmental institutions. Moreover, the digital networking environments on the Internet that enabled this type of decision making were accompanied by the emergence and establishment of on-line communities. Under this perspective, the range of communication mediated by ubiquitous computing allows problems, ideas, and suggestions of a spec ific nature to be considered when gathered into organizational and institutional virtual spaces. Within these spaces, the voices of individual customers, workers, organizational stakeholders, and/or citizens can be articulated and brought to bear on services, practices, and policies, as well as to join voices with salient others. Such naturally or intentionally formed communities and groups require roles within them to function. One of these roles is leadership; Chemers (1997), in his book titled, An Integrative Theory Of Leadership, suggested that leadership is the process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task. Although this approach of one leader directing a group was representative of the 20 th century, the new, globally interconnected context sets the stage for the expectation that leadership is to be less directive and more collaborative The application of leadership attributes such as values, knowledge, and skills can now be found in and employed by the diversity of the group members and community rather than residing solely in just one, or just a few, individuals. Consequently, the communication that integrates the individuals within the c ollective allows for new attributes to be attached to the leadership construct. Thus, a new a pproach is being observed within the realms of cyberspace: distributed leadership. The term leadership usually refers to the traditional top-down model of centralizing control. Recently, however, a transformational aspect has become embedded within the term to indicate a bottom-up management mode. Simultaneously, the paradigmatic shift in media-interactive