Chapter 12

The Meaning of
Leadership
1. In collaborative settings enacting leadership can mean
influencing whole organizations rather than just individuals
2. And there is frequently ambiguity about who partners are and
inherent difficulty in specifying collaborative aims
3. The first conceptualization focuses on the media through which
leadership is enacted
4. Collaborative structures and processes are as important in
leading to particular outcomes as are participants
5. These media are also often outside the control of the members

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• The formation and implementation of
collaborative agendas is led by three media:
– Structure
– Processes
– Participants

– Structure influence process designs and what participants can

do.
– Processes influence the structures that emerge and who can
influence the agenda.
– Participants influence the design of both structure and
process.

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 Leadership through structure
1. The structure of a collaboration is taken to be the organizations and individuals
associated with it and the structural inter-connections between them.
2. Structure is key driver of the way agendas are shaped and implemented
3. Murell (1997) argued that leadership and structure are similar concepts ,
With much of the influence of a leader being dependent upon the way that
organization structure affects the potential for relational leadership,
Whereas the focus here is on the way inter-organizational structure affects outcomes
4. For example, an open structure allows any organization that wishes to send a
representative to meetings allows wide access to the agenda
By contrast, a tightly controlled membership structure maybe more able to gain
agreement and to implement its agenda , but may exclude key stakeholders from
accessing the agenda
5. The structure affects the way people act, but does not preclude deliberate action
6. Structures thus play an important leadership role because they determine such key
factors as who may have an influence on shaping a partnership agenda,
who may have power to act and what resources maybe tapped
7. When the structure of a collaboration is part of a system of multiple overlapping
partnerships , the influence on the agenda maybe even more signifciant
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8. The degree to which structures are imposed varies and in some cases, the initiators or
members of a collaboration may have the freedom to construct the partnership in
whatever way they feel appropriate
9. Some are designed very deliberately
For example,

10. Even though careful attention may have been paid to their design, however,
developments of structures normally emerge out of the practical reality of the tasks that
they tackle
For example,

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 Leadership through process:
1. The processes integral to a collaboration also plays significant role in shaping
and implementing a partnership’s agenda.
2. In this context, a narrow interpretation of process is intended, referring to the
formal and ifnormal instruments such as :
• Committees
• Workshops
• Seminars
• Telephone, fax, email, etc.
Through which the collaboration’s communications takes place.
3. Processes may take many shapes and forms and may be important for a number of reasons.
Such as
The way in which and the frequency by which members communicate are the obvious components
of processes.
Some processes encourage members to share information and develop common understanding of
issues, whereas others hinder active communication

4. Processes may empower (or not) potential members to have access to debate
concerning the partnership’s agenda. For example, workshops and seminars may
provide specific members with skills and information that they would require to
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5. Other processes may help partnership members
more generally to make positive moves to further
their partnership’s interest
For example, workshops may help in developing
member’s common understanding ,language and
definitions of issues
6. As with structures, many processes that shape a
collaboration are not designed by members or
even wholly within their control.
It is common for external forces , commonly
funding deadlines, to drive processes
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 Leadership through participants:
1. Participants play a powerful leadership role in influencing the agenda.
2. In this context, a broad defintiion of participants is intended, which includes
• Individuals
• Groups
• Organizations
3. Any participant who has the power and know-how to influence and enact the partnership agenda
may take the lead.
4. Even in this medium the leadership function is often not in the control of the members
5. In many collaborations, an organization is given positional leader legitimacy through being
designated as a ‘lead organization’
For example, policy makers or funders often specify a lead organization or atleast require one to be
nominated
6. Members of a collaboration are not always able to drive the agenda in the expected manner even
though they may have positional leadership roles
In many collaborations the individual playing the most significant role in leading the collaboratve
agenda is the partnership manager, director etc, usually not actually a member of the collaboration
7. Such individuals do gain a degree of legitimacy to lead from their position in the collaboration ,
But they are employed as a resource to the collaboration, generally supposed to be independent of
the member organizations
8. Though they maybe the most significant, partnership managers are not the only non memebrs to
play a leadership role in a collaboration.
For example, researchers, facilitators or consultants may be commissioned to help memebrs of the
collaboration to manage their collaborativeLY - Lebanon
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processes 8
 Leadership Media
• Leadership through participants:
– Many types of positional leaders may be identified:
• A “lead organization” that can be the organization that convened the
collaboration in the first place, or a “host organization” which houses the
collaboration physically and administratively. Individuals within the “lead
organization” enact leadership and gain greater authority to do so through
working “on behalf of the lead” organization
• A management committee, board or steering group comprising individuals
representing organizations associated with the collaboration. Many
collaborations appoint a member of one of the participating organizations to the
individual positional leader role of the committee, board or group. This position
affects the facility for other group members to enact their leadership roles. A
dominant “leader” has the positional power to influence strongly their
decisions, whereas a weak one may leave them directionless.
• Researchers, facilitators or consultants may be commissioned as well to help
members of the collaboration to manage their collective working processes or
provide other support. Their role is regarded as being explicitly neutral to the
collaborative agenda., yet any intervention is likely to have an effect on the
direction of the collaboration

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