Real-life Examples of Collective Leadership in Organizational Behavior

This article explores real-life examples of collective leadership in organizational behavior. It discusses distributive leadership, co-leadership, and shared leadership, and their impact on group cohesion and organizational performance. Examples include students presenting after-school professional development, working on group projects, and the role of teachers in supporting shared leadership.

Running Head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Topic- Collective Leadership
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2ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Real-life classroom examples of Collective Leadership
Distributive leadership
Here leadership is perceived as a group phenomenon and is distributed among
individuals. It has three main premises namely, co-constructive interaction, no clear boundary
and is contextual and includes variety of expertise (Uhl-Bien et al.). This is a very common type
of leadership seen in day-to-day life activities and human interaction. Collaboration and
collectiveness are its major characteristics.
In this regard, a real-life classroom example will be students presenting their after-school
professional development every week. The distributive sessions focus on sharing various real-life
practice examples and other experiences of school-based programs in the class and roles and
responsibilities are shared based on skills, knowledge and expertise. Here evidence-based
learning outcomes are emphasized that results in collective efficacy. Students may be said to
form groups based on their skills, that is some students are good at academics, some are good at
sports, some are good at communal development activities. Based on their area of expertise
groups are formed and thus they provide their best in leadership. Leadership expertise is
mobilized here and development of various professional learning communities for students help
in overall class performance improvement. Distributive leadership is expertise based and it is
based on high level of transparency, trust and mutual respect for each other in the group.
Co-leadership
Co-leadership is mainly structured in a way that top leadership is not limited to a single
power or person and is vested towards multi-lateral leaders (Uhl-Bien et al.). It is generally
present in high professional organizations and help to overcome problems of single authoritative

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leadership where misuse of power and authority is assumed to be more. Increased organizational
complexity in recent times make it difficult for one leader to handle all issues and therefore co-
leadership has gained momentum in these years (Uhl-Bien et al.). It is also called collective
leadership and here roles are specialized, differentiated and complementary.
Example of co-leadership among students in a classroom may be working on a group
project where they learn to confront their ideas and thus resolves various conflicts among
themselves in a very effective manner. Ultimate resultant is one single outcome and therefore the
‘me’ mentality is gradually transformed into ‘we’ mentality in the team. Personal biases are kept
aside and students in the group work together towards a common goal accomplishment.
Collaboration and communication improve drastically through co-leadership. Each member has
equal power in the collective leadership constellation and therefore misuse of power is restricted.
Also, solving complex issues in the class at times is difficult for individual students but when
they for constellations and work on the same the output is easily achieved. Co-leadership
improves efficiency and overall class effectiveness at the same time. Also, nowadays, maximum
learning organizations focus on collective leadership and have a group assignment as a part of
semester project submission. And, as future professional work environment also focuses on team
support and team dynamics, educations institutions from their very early stages prepare the
students to be industry ready so that their work environment becomes more flexible and
worthwhile.
Shared leadership
In shared leadership approach, the leadership is dynamic and interactive. The objectives
in the group is to lead one another towards organizational goal accomplishment. Influence is
both lateral and vertical (Uhl-Bien et al.). Both inside and outside members can be part of shared

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leadership. The good group cohesion resulted from shared leadership increase overall
organizational performance (Uhl-Bien et al.).
Example of shared leadership is very common among students in educational institutions.
Here the major goal of the institution is to have good fame and reputation in educational sector.
And in order to achieve this goal the teachers and other educational guides help students in their
studies. In other words, the group cohesion among students in a class improves by support of
their teachers and their individual goal is accomplished easily which is to secure higher grades.
In this way all class groups work together in fulfilling the overall goal of the institution of having
good market reputation. here both students’ goals and organizational goals are in line and both
support good quality education and recognition in future. Both individualistic goals and group
goals coincide in shared leadership. In this regard, teachers play a very crucial role in supporting
shared leadership among the student groups. Their encouragement and motivation play important
role in supporting the ultimate objective of shared leadership.

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Works cited
Uhl-Bien, Mary et al. Organizational Behavior. 3rd ed., Wiley Publishers, 2014, pp. 294-296.