The Important Role of Collective Leadership in the Face of Change: Literature Review

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.