The negotiation of sharing leadership in the context of professional hierarchy: Interactions on interprofessional teams

Abstract

While there is growing recognition of leadership as a collective phenomenon, the question of how leadership is shared in the context of hierarchical asymmetry has been neglected in the collective leadership literature. Our article addresses this gap by examining how sharing leadership is negotiated in team interactions that are steeped in asymmetry deriving from the professional hierarchy. Adopting a leadership-in-interaction approach, we draw on fine-grained analysis of observed interactions on interprofessional teams from two health care organizations to compare the discursive strategies used by professionals in a superior hierarchical position to the ones used by those in inferior positions to share leadership. These strategies are organized into a matrix of interactional moves that resist or enact the professional hierarchy. Empirical vignettes are provided to demonstrate how sharing leadership and hierarchical leadership can be co-present and even intertwined in an interaction. We show that leadership is shared (or not) as a result of how the professional hierarchy gets negotiated in interactions. More specifically, we conclude that the sharing of leadership in this context tends to occur prior to decision making, especially around problem formulation, if the interactional climate allows. Furthermore, it requires concrete effort: Those in superior positions of influence mindfully relax the hierarchy whereas those in inferior positions create moments of sharing leadership through resistance and struggle.