1 SHARED LEADERSHIP FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
1.1 INTRODUCTION
“We are in a knowledge economy [...],
but our managerial and governance systems are stuck in the Industrial Era.
It is time for a whole new model”
(Manville & Ober, 2003a, p.48).Osborn et al. (2002) argue that there is a need for ³D UDGLFDO FKDQJH LQ SHUVSHFWLYH ́ EH\RQGthe
traditional way of looking at leadership because ³«WKHcontext in which leaders operate is both
radically different and diverse. The world of traditional bureaucracy exists but is only one of many
FRQWH[WV ́(p.798). The Western world has entered a post-capitalist society in which capitalists and
proletarians are replaced by knowledge workers and service workers (Drucker, 1993). This change in
contextual frame bears consequences for leadership theory and practice.
While many researchers claim that the ³old ́ model of leadership was intended to address a very
different set of circumstances and is therefore of questionable relevance to the contemporary work
environment (Davenport, 2001), there is not yet a clear alternative. Organizational expert Brook
Manville, and Princeton political science professor Josiah Ober suggest that the model for building
future organizations may lie deep in the past. These authors argue in their book, The Company of
Citizens (2003b), that Athenian democracy (around 500 BC) was an ingenious solution to organizing
human capital through the practice of citizenship. This idea of collective responsibility is an
interesting concept to explore in the present-day context, the argument being that leadership in
contemporary organizations can be conceptualized and operationalized as a collective capacity, where
individuals share leadership functions.
This dissertation takes up the challenge of formulating a leadership answer which fits the
contemporary context, while building on past leadership knowledge and experience. First, this
introductory chapter describes the context of the 21st century (section 1.2) and second, reviews the
current research context (section 1.3). On that basis, the last section of this chapter (section 1.4) puts
forward an alternative way to conceptualize leadership for the 21st century.