The DOI matches its Crossref record; 33 of the 33 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Distributed Leadership: Friend or Foe?
Abstract
Distributed leadership is now widely known and variously enacted in schools and school systems. Distributed leadership implies a fundamental re-conceptualisation of leadership as practice and challenges conventional wisdom about the relationship between formal leadership and organisational performance. There has been much debate, speculation and discussion about its positive and negative aspects. This article considers the evidence. It examines the facts concerning distributed leadership. It does not claim to be a systematic review of the literature but rather draws upon the available empirical evidence to highlight what we know. The article considers the implications, arising from the evidence for those in formal leadership positions. It concludes by reflecting upon the role of the formal leader within distributed leadership and outlines some of the challenges and tensions associated with distributed leadership practice.
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Citations
Cites
Leading in a Culture of Change
Fullan, M. J. (2001) · Cited by 3,489
Towards a theory of leadership practice: a distributed perspective
SPILLANE, J. P., HALVERSON, R., & DIAMOND, J. B. (2004) · Journal of Curriculum Studies · doi:10.1080/0022027032000106726 · Cited by 1,805
Investigating School Leadership Practice: A Distributed Perspective
Spillane, J. P., Halverson, R., & Diamond, J. B. (2001) · Educational Researcher · doi:10.3102/0013189x030003023 · Cited by 1,690
Spillane, J. P. (2005) · The Educational Forum · doi:10.1080/00131720508984678 · Cited by 1,673
Distributed leadership: according to the evidence
Harris, A. (2008) · Journal of Educational Administration · doi:10.1108/09578230810863253 · Cited by 671
Self-citationCollective Leadership Effects on Student Achievement
Leithwood, K., & Mascall, B. (2008) · Educational Administration Quarterly · doi:10.1177/0013161x08321221 · Cited by 628
Improving Schools Through Teacher Leadership
Harris, A., & Muijs, D. (2004) · Cited by 509
Self-citationDistributing Leadership to Make Schools Smarter: Taking the Ego Out of the System
Leithwood, K., Mascall, B., Strauss, T., Sacks, R., Memon, N., & Yashkina, A. (2007) · Leadership and Policy in Schools · doi:10.1080/15700760601091267 · Cited by 485
Journal of Management Development
(2006) · Journal of Management Development · doi:10.1108/jmd.2006.02625haa.001 · Cited by 366
Making Sense of Distributed Leadership: Exploring the Multiple Usages of the Concept in the Field
Mayrowetz, D. (2008) · Educational Administration Quarterly · doi:10.1177/0013161x07309480 · Cited by 329
Cited by
Seven strong claims about successful school leadership revisited
Leithwood, K., Harris, A., & Hopkins, D. (2020) · School Leadership & Management · doi:10.1080/13632434.2019.1596077 · Cited by 1,683
Self-citationFennell, K. L. (2021) · Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare · doi:10.2147/jmdh.s329628 · Cited by 33
Transforming educational leadership in higher education with innovative administrative strategies
University of Zululand, Mpuangnan, K. N., Roboji, Z., & Walter Sisulu University (2024) · International Journal of Educational Management and Development Studies · doi:10.53378/353054 · Cited by 18
Johnson, I., Bickle, E., & Kantcheva, R. (2025) · Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education · doi:10.47408/jldhe.vi33.1216 · Cited by 3
Metadata
- Authors
- Harris, A.
- Venue
- Educational Management Administration & Leadership
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2013-09
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 545-554
- ISSN
- 1741-1432 (ISSN-L)
- 1741-1440
- OpenAlex
- W2137614636
- Cited by
- 409
- References
- 33
- FWCI
- 79.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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