Two Sides of the Same Coin? A Dialogue on the Co-Existence of Hierarchical and Collective Leadership

Traditionally, leadership is seen as a something that leaders inherit (e.g., through their position in a hierarchy or through physical or personality traits) or enact (e.g., through behaviors or discourse). Recently, a new stream of research has emerged that flips this framing and sees leadership as a collective achievement that emerges within generative human (inter)actions as individuals seek to coordinate their activities in order to act cooperatively toward collective goals. This symposium intends to start a conversation about these apparently incommensurable framings and to identify and explore any conceptual conflicts that might arise as leadership researchers develop and test theories from both of these points of view. More specifically, the discussion will look at different perspectives about whether, and if so how both hierarchical leadership, that is focused on the individual leader, and collective leadership, that is focused on joint (inter)actions, are able to coexist in today’s increasingly diverse and inclusive organizations. Overall, the aim of the symposium is to deepen scholarly understandings of the agency and mechanisms that define leadership for the complex inclusive organizations of tomorrow. The symposium is organized around by five papers presented interactively from different perspectives. This will be followed by a structured discussion that engages symposium participants in an interactive dialogue that we hope will articulate a series of specific research questions that demand future study.

• A Social Psychological Perspective on Collective and Hierarchical Leadership

• Presenter: Anson Seers; Virginia Commonwealth U.

• Collective Leadership or Leading in a Collective? Exploring Network Effects and Scaling Dynamics

• Presenter: Jim Hazy; Adelphi U.

• Presenter: Murat Sakir Erogul; Adelphi U.

• Differences Between Collective and Hierarchical Leadership: With and Without Distinction

• Presenter: Gail T. Fairhurst; U. of Cincinnati

• Presenter: Brad Jackson; Victoria U. of Wellington

• Inclusivity and Exclusivity, ‘Cousins’ of Collective and Hierarchical Leadership?

• Presenter: Howard Youngs; Auckland U. of Technology

• Hierarchy: First among “Unequals”

• Presenter: Joseph A. Raelin; Northeastern U.