TITLE:
The Important Role of Collective Leadership in the Face of Change: Literature Review
AUTHORS:
Faris Alsaedi
KEYWORDS:
Collective Leadership, Decentralization, Modern Organizations, Technology, Social Consciousness
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Leadership,
Vol.11 No.1,
February
14,
2022
ABSTRACT: Many organizations have considered different
leadership styles to ensure effective operations. The most pronounced style of
these leadership styles involves collective leadership. This
leadership style involves accentuation of power distribution among different entities within a firm. The leadership
style aggregates individual talents, expertise, and strengths to impact
change. Various forms of this leadership
style exist, including decentralization and density, and concentration. Collective leadership involves
leaders assuming several roles. These roles include mentoring, organizing,
problem-solving and motivating. These
responsibilities make collective leadership very popular in modern
organizations because they often have an accentuated need for motivation and
employee morale. Modern organizations have also embraced technology as a tool for growth and competition. Successful
implementation and maintenance of new
technologies require collaboration. This situation makes collective leadership the most suitable leadership style for
keeping pace with emerging technologies. Organizations’ members should have social consciousness for modern organizations to
remain relevant amid significant technological evolution that is taking place. Self-awareness
and collective leadership have an intrinsic link that makes it vital for modern
organizations to embrace it to keep pace with changing social consciousness.
This change is also causing a considerable
shift in customer expectations and requirements. Modern organizations have solved this complexity by promoting togetherness and accommodating varying viewpoints through collective leadership. The
distributed influence in collective leadership is also leading to the
pooling of unique skills and expertise, which is in turn, creating a more reliable framework for
modern companies to engage with
their customers. The changes in society mean that the workforce in modern firms is also evolving. This situation
requires modern organizations to
build the organizational culture that reflects the conscious
nature of employees’ needs and respects the
existing communication channels. Such culture emanates through collective leadership. External stakeholders are also
members of the rapidly changing society.
Modern firms have ensured harmony between internal stakeholders such as
employees and external stakeholders such as investors through collective
leadership. This process ensures that the company’s
actions and decisions reflect the will of the internal and external stakeholders. Consequently, collective leadership ensures that each person
affiliated with an organization is heard and
their opinions considered in decision-making hence achieving equity and inclusivity.