Comparing Gronn And Elmore's Model Of Distributed Leadership

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Originally, the notion of distributed leadership came from cognitive and social psychology, which suggested that cognitive processes are better understood when they are distributed across the members of a social group. Therefore, the primal aspect of distributed leadership is social context and the interrelationships. The modern concept of distributed leadership appeared in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Looking at the literature on distributed leadership, we find a huge number of different interpretations of this term (Harris, 2008). Moreover, the idea of distributed leadership is crossing with other similar ideas as shared, democratic or delegated leadership, which may lead to misuse of the term. This word distributed leadership has become …show more content…

He illustrates how standard-based reform required fundamental changes and redefinition of leadership, which he called “large-scaled improvement”. His model of distributed leadership is connected with instructional improvement and school performance. Elmore (2000) stated, “Distributed leadership […] derives from the fact that large scale improvement requires concerted action among people with different areas of expertise and a mutual respect that stems from an appreciation of the knowledge and skill requirements of different roles” (p. 35-36). In other words, he defined distributed leadership in terms of multiple sources of individual expertise to accomplish common goals and solve the problems. Thus, both Gronn and Elmore shared the idea of using individual expertise, skills and knowledge in order to complete different …show more content…

First, distributed leadership gives an opportunity for many people to exercise leadership and take up responsibilities, which significantly extends the boundaries of leadership and makes them open and fluid (Harris, 2004). Second and very important, distributed leadership keeps the role of formal structure and formal leader, who has to promote a method which holds different parts of the organisation collectively in a way that will result to a beneficial interrelationship among them, and make each one of them to be responsible for those results. The main task of the leader is to create opportunities, facilitate and support this process (Harris, 2004) and to understand and enhance the skills and knowledge of people in the organization (Spillane, 2006). The leader has a role, not of “a chief doer”, but of “an architect of organizational leadership” (Lashway, 2003). The formal leader must recognize relationship between leadership and organizational structures, the vision of the school, and its culture. (Harris, 2004 / Elmore, 2000). The primary trait of this culture is collaboration, underpinned by high level of trust, mutual respect and transparency (Silcox, Boyd 2016). Third point of agreement is that distributed leadership mainly focuses on development of instructional leadership, rather than other organizational functions. (Timperly,

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