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Dynamic delegation: shared, hierarchical, and deindividualized leadership in extreme action teams
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http://hdl.handle.net/1860/2592
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| Title: | Dynamic delegation: shared, hierarchical, and deindividualized leadership in extreme action teams |
| Authors: | Klein, Katherine J.
Ziegert, Jonathan C.
Knight, Andrew P.
Xiao, Yan |
| Issue Date: | 2006 |
| Publisher: | Cornell University Johnson Graduate School of Management |
| Citation: | Administrative Science Quarterly, 51(4): pp. 590-621. |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the leadership of extreme action
teams—teams whose highly skilled members cooperate
to perform urgent, unpredictable, interdependent, and
highly consequential tasks while simultaneously coping
with frequent changes in team composition and training
their teams’ novice members. Our qualitative investigation
of the leadership of extreme action medical teams in
an emergency trauma center revealed a hierarchical,
deindividualized system of shared leadership. At the
heart of this system is dynamic delegation: senior leaders’
rapid and repeated delegation of the active leadership
role to and withdrawal of the active leadership role
from more junior leaders of the team. Our findings suggest
that dynamic delegation enhances extreme action
teams’ ability to perform reliably while also building their
novice team members’ skills. We highlight the contingencies
that guide senior leaders’ delegation and withdrawal
of the active leadership role, as well as the values and
structures that motivate and enable the shared, ongoing
practice of dynamic delegation. Further, we suggest that
extreme action teams and other “improvisational” organizational
units may achieve swift coordination and reliable
performance by melding hierarchical and bureaucratic
role-based structures with flexibility-enhancing
processes. The insights emerging from our findings at
once extend and challenge prior leadership theory and
research, paving the way for further theory development
and research on team leadership in dynamic settings. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/1860/2592 |
| Appears in Collections: | Faculty Research and Publications (Management)
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