Stockholm university
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Research project Managerial shared leadership

Since the turn of the millennium, a research group has studied the phenomenon of shared leadership between managers in Swedish working life. Managerial shared leadership is a practice that goes beyond traditional, singular ways of organising leadership functions. It has long been hidden behind our societies’ individualistic, heroic view of leadership. 

Bild föreställande två chefer
FOTO: ANGEL NIETO

Managerial shared leadership is where two, three or more individuals conjointly work as managers, and it is defined as an organisational phenomenon where a few individuals have and/or take mutual responsibility for the tasks included in holding a managerial position. They share leadership within the frame of a managerial position and distribute leadership tasks and power within the sharing constellation.

As a research field, managerial shared leadership continues to be studied empirically in various contexts. The aim is to contribute knowledge about managerial shared leadership as a research field and offer relevant theoretical concepts. 

Read more about the project on the Swedish page.
 

Project members

Project managers

Marianne Döös

Professor emerita

Department of Education
08-16 31 59
Marianne Döös
marianne.doos@edu.su.se
See profile page for Marianne Döös

Members

Tomas Backström

Professor

Mälardalen university
Tomas Backström
Read more about Tomas Backström

Jenny Madestam

Senior Lecturer

Södertörn University
Read more about Jenny Madestam

Lena Wilhelmson

Former Department of Education, Stockholm University

Åsa Örnberg

Universitetslektor

Department of Law
08-16 26 75
asa.ornberg@juridicum.su.se
See profile page for Åsa Örnberg

Publications

Publications in Swedish you'll fins on the project's Swedish page.

Changing organisational conditions:

Experiences of introducing and putting function-shared leadership (FSL) into practice in schools and pre-schools. Leadership and Policy in Schools. Döös, M., & Wilhelmson, L. (2020). On-line publ Open Access. doi: 10.1080/15700763.2020.1734628

Together as one: Shared leadership between managers.

Döös, M. (2015). International Journal of Business and Management, 10(8), 46-58. doi: 10.5539/ijbm.v10n8p46.

Going beyond “two-getherness”: Nurse managers’ experiences of working together in a leadership model

Döös, M., Vinell, H., & von Knorring, M. (2017). Intensive and Critical Care Nursing. doi: 10.1016/j.iccn.2017.04.009

Fifty-five years of managerial shared leadership research: A review of an empirical field.

Döös, M., & Wilhelmson, L. (2021). Leadership. Open access.

Shared principalship: The perspective of close subordinate colleagues.

Döös, M., Wilhelmson, L., Madestam, J., & Örnberg, Å. (2017). Internationa Journal of Leadership in Education, 1-19. On-line publ Open Access 170508. doi: 10.1080/13603124.2017.1321785

The shared principalship: Invitation at the top.

The principle of singularity:

A retrospective study of how and why the legislation process behind Sweden’s Education Act came to prohibit joint leadership for principals. Döös, M., Madestam, J., Wilhelmson, L., & Örnberg, Å. (2018). Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education, 2(2-3), 39-55.

Isolated cases or widespread practice? The occurrence of sharing managers in Swedish working life.

Döös, M., Backström, T., Melin, M., & Wilhelmson, L. (2012). Economics and Business Letters, 1(3), 23-36.

Transformative learning in joint leadership

Wilhelmson, L. (2006). Journal of Workplace Learning, 18(7–8), 495–507.

oint principalship: A potential support for democratic practice in schools.

Wilhelmson, L., & Döös, M. (2016). JNordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 2(1), 1-11.

Puiblication list

Publication list: Managerial shared leadership