Leadership in public policy making is challenging. There is tension in gaining commitment from competing stakeholder groups, in sustaining public engagement in technically complex areas and securing broad-based support. Our paper illuminates these challenges through a case study of health policy development in the UK. We go beyond individual roles and leader–follower exchange relationships to develop the concept of distributed leadership using a sociomaterial approach to reveal how and why leadership is distributed across sociomaterial practices which together (re)configure policy coalitions and context. In so doing we also show how legitimacy and trust are sociomaterially enacted and shape leadership in public policy.
BateP. (2000). Changing the culture of a hospital: From hierarchy to networked community. Public Administration, 78, 485–512.
8.
BowieC.RichardsonA.SykesW. (1995). Consulting the public about health service priorities. British Medical Journal, 311, 1155–1158.
9.
BrysonJ.CrosbyB.StoneM. (2006). The design and implementation of cross sector collaborations: Propositions from the literature. Public Administration Review, December, 44–55.
10.
BuchananD.AddicottR.FitzgeraldL.FerlieE.BaezaJ. (2007). Nobody in charge: Distributed change agency in healthcare. Human Relations, 39, 65–79.
11.
CalnanM.RoweR. (2008). Trust relations in a changing health service. Journal of Health Service Research and Policy, 13(3), 97–103.
12.
CastelP.FriedbergE. (2010). Institutional change as an interactive process: The case of the modernization of the French cancer centers. Organization Science, 21, 301–330.
13.
CurrieG.GrubnicS.HodgesR. (2011). Leadership in public services networks: Antecedents, process and outcome. Public Administration, 89, 242–264.
14.
CurrieG.LockettA.SuhomlinovaO. (2009). The institutionalization of distributed leadership: A ‘catch-22’ in English public services. Human Relations, 62, 1735–1761.
15.
CurrieG.SuhomlinovaO. (2006). The impact of institutional forces upon knowledge sharing in the UK NHS: The triumph of professional power and the inconsistency of policy. Public Administration, 84, 1–30.
16.
DenisJ. L.LamotheL.LangleyA. (2001). The dynamics of collective leadership and strategic change in pluralistic organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 44, 809–837.
17.
DenisJ. L.LangleyA.RouleauL. (2006). The power of numbers in strategizing. Strategic Organization, 4, 349–377.
18.
DenzinN.LincolnY. (1998). The landscape of qualitative research. Thousand oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
19.
DopsonS.MillerR.DawsonS.SutherlandK. (1999). Influences on clinical practice: The case of glue ear. Quality in Health Care, 8, 108–118.
20.
ElsterJ. (1998). Emotions and economic theory. Journal of Economic Literature, 36, 47–74.
21.
ExworthyM.PowellM. (2004). Big windows and little windows: Implementation in the ‘congested state. Public Administration, 82, 263–281.
22.
FeldmanM.KhademianA.IngramH.SchneiderA. (2006). Ways of knowing and inclusive management practice. Public Administration Review, December, 89–99.
23.
FeldmanM.OrlikowskiW. (2011). Theorizing practice and practicing theory. Organization Science, 22, 1240–1253.
24.
FerlieE.FitzgeraldL.WoodM.HawkinsC. (2005). The non-spread of innovations: The mediating role of professionals. Academy of Management Journal, 48, 117–134.
25.
FlorN.HutchinsE. (1991). Analyzing distributed cognition in software teams: A case study of team programming during perfective software maintenance. In: Empirical studies of programmers: fourth workshop, pp. 36–64.
26.
FlynnR.WilliamsG.PickardS. (1996). Markets and networks: contracting for community health services. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
27.
FreidsonE. (2001). Professionalism: the third logic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
28.
GiddensA. (1990). The consequences of modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
GriffithsL.HughesD. (2000). Talking contracts and taking care: Managers and professionals in the British National Health Service internal market. Social Science and Medicine, 51, 209–222.
31.
GronnP. (2002). Distributed leadership as a unit of analysis. Leadership Quarterly, 13, 423–451.
32.
HaislmaierE.OwcharenkoN. (2006). The Massachusetts approach: A new way to restructure state health insurance markets and programs. Health Affairs, 25, 1680–1685.
33.
HalpernS. A. (1992). Dynamics of professional control: Internal coalitions and cross professional boundaries. American Journal of Sociology, 97, 994–1021.
34.
HartleyJ.AllisonM. (2000). Role of leadership in modernization and improvement of public services. Public Money and Management, 20(2), 35–41.
35.
HeifetzR. (1994). Leadership without easy answers. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
36.
HeinzJ.LaumannE. (1990). Inner circles or hollow cores? Elite networks in national policy systems. Journal of Politics, 52, 356.
37.
HillH. (2003). Understanding implementation: Street-level bureaucrats’ resources for reform. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 13, 265–282.
38.
HumanS.ProvanK. (2000). legitimacy building in the evolution of small-firm networks: A comparative study of success and demise. Administrative Science Quarterly, 45, 327–365.
39.
HunterK. (1995). Doctor’s stories. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
40.
HuxhamC.VangenS. (2005). Managing to collaborate. London: Routledge.
41.
JamousH.PeloilleB. (1970). Professions or self-perpetuating systems? Changes in the French university-hospital system. In JacksonJ. A. (Ed.), Professions and professionalization. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
42.
KingdonJ. (1995). Agendas, alternatives and public policy. New York: HarperCollins.
43.
KleinR. (2006). The new politics of the NHS. Oxford: Radcliff Publishing.
44.
KraatzM. (2009). Leadership as institutional work: A bridge to the other side. In LawrenceT.SuddabyR.LecaB. (Eds.), Institutional work, (pp. 59–91). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
45.
LaveJ. (1988) Cognition in practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
46.
LevayC.WaksC. (2009) Professions and the pursuit of transparency in healthcare: Two cases of soft autonomy. Organization Studies, 30, 509–527.
47.
LiaoH.ChuangA. (2007) Transforming service employees and climate: A multilevel, multisource examination of transformational leadership in building long-term service relationships. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 1006–1019.
48.
LichtensteinB.Uhl BienM.MarionR.SeersA.OrtonJ.SchreiberC. (2007). Complexity leadership theory: An interactive perspective on leading in complex adaptive systems. In HazyJ. K.GoldsteinJ. A.LichtensteinB. B. (Eds.), Complex systems leadership theory: new perspective from complexity science on social and organizational effectiveness (pp 129–141). Mansfield, MA: ISCE Publications.
49.
MartinG. (2008). Representativeness, legitimacy and power in public involvement in healthcare management. Social Science and Medicine, 67, 1757–1765.
50.
MartinG.CurrieG.FinnR. (2008). Leadership, service reform and public-service networks: The case of cancer genetics pilots in the English NHS. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 19, 769–794.
51.
MayrowetzD. (2008). Making sense of distributed leadership: Exploring the multiple usages of the concept in the field. Education Administration Quarterly, 44, 422–435.
52.
McGivernG.DopsonS. (2010). Inter-epistemic power and transforming knowledge objects in a biomedical network. Organization Studies, 31, 1667–1686.
53.
MechanicD. (1996). Failure of health reform in the USA. Journal of Health Service Research and Policy, 1, 4–9.
54.
MechanicD. (1998). Public trust and initiatives for new health care partnerships. Milbank Quarterly, 76, 281–302.
55.
MilwardH.ProvanK. (2000). Governing the hollow state. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2, 359–379.
56.
MilwardH.ProvanK. (2003). Managing the hollow state: Collaboration and contracting. Public Management Review, 5(1), 1–18.
57.
MolA. (2002). The body multiple. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
58.
NorthN.WerkoS. (2002). Widening the debate? Consultation and participation in local health care planning in the English and Swedish health services. International Journal of Health Services, 32, 781–798.
59.
ObornE. (2008). Legitimacy of hospital reconfiguration: The controversial downsizing of Kidderminster hospitals. Journal of Health Service Research and Policy, 13(2), 11–18.
60.
ObornE.BarrettM.DavidsonE. (2011). Building unity in diversity: Electronic patient record use in multidisciplinary practice. Information Systems Research, 22, 547–564.
OrlikowskiW.ScottS. (2008) Sociomateriality: Challenging the separation of technology, work and organization. Academy of Management Annals, 2, 433–474.
63.
OrlikowskiW.ScottS. (forthcoming). The algorithm and the crowd: Considering the materiality of service innovation. MIS Quarterly, Special Issue on service innovation.
64.
ØsterlundC.CarlileP. (2005). Relations in practice: Sorting through practice theories on knowledge sharing in complex organizations. Information Society, 21(2), 91–107.
65.
PearceC. (2004). The future of leadership: Combining vertical and shared leadership to transform knowledge work. Academy of Management Executive, 18, 47–57.
66.
PollittC.BouckaertG. (2004). Public management reform: a comparative analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
67.
PorterM.TeisbergE. (2006). Redefining health care: creating value-based competition on results. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
68.
PowerM. (1997). The audit society: the rituals of verification. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
69.
ReayT.HiningsC. R. (2009). Managing the rivalry of competing institutional logics. Organization Studies, 30, 629–652.
70.
ReckwitzA. (2002). Toward a theory of social practices: A development in culturalist theorizing. European Journal of Social Theory, 5, 245–265.
71.
RingP.Van de VenA. (1994) Developmental processes of cooperative interorganizational relationships. Academy of Management Review, 19, 90–118.
72.
RugerJ. P.KressD. (2007). Health financing and insurance reform in Morocco. Health Affairs, 26, 1009–1016.
73.
Secretary of State for Health (2000). The NHS Plan. London: The Stationery Office.
74.
SelznickP. (1957). Leadership in administration. New York: Harper & Row.
75.
ShapiroD. L.SheppardB. H.CheraskinL. (1992). Business on a handshake. Negotiation Journal, 8, 365–377.
76.
SmytheJ. (2005). The democratisation of strategy and change. Communication World, March/April, 32–35.
SuchmanL. (2007) Human-machine reconfigurations: plans and situated actions, 2nd edn.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
81.
SuchmanM. (1995). Managing legitimacy: Strategic and institutional approaches. Academy of Management Review, 20, 571–610.
82.
SunP.AndersonM. (2012). Civic capacity: Building on transformational leadership to explain successful integrative public leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 23, 309–323.
83.
SztompkaP. (1998). Trust, distrust and two dilemmas of democracy. European Journal of Social Theory, 1, 1–32.
84.
Taylor GoobyR. (2006). Trust, risk and healthcare reform. Health, Risk and Society, 8(2), 97–103.
85.
TomlinsonB. (1992). Report of the inquiry into London’s health services, medical education and research. Presented to the Secretaries of State for Health and Education. London; HMSO.
86.
TurnbergL. (1998). Turnberg Report. Health services in London: a strategic review. Presented to the Secretaries of State for Health. London: HMSO.
87.
Turnbull JamesK.MannJ.CreasyJ. (2007). Leaders as lead learners: A case example of facilitating collaborative leadership learning for school leaders. Management Learning, 38, 79–94.
88.
Van WartM. (2003). Public sector leadership theory: An assessment. Public Administrative Review, 63, 214–228.
89.
VeraD.CrossanM. (2004). Strategic leadership and organizational learning. Academy of Management Review, 29, 222–240.
90.
WaldmanD.RamirezG.HouseR. (2001). Does leadership matter? CEO leadership attributes and profitability under conditions of perceived environmental uncertainty. Academy of Management Journal, 44, 134–143.
91.
WallisJ.DolleryB. (2002). Policy leadership styles and the process of paradigmatic policy change: three propositions. Dunedin: University of Otago Economics Discussion papers no. 0203.
92.
WeickK. (1995). Sensemaking in organizations. London: SAGE Publications.
93.
WeiszG. (2006). Divide and conquer: a comparative history of medical specialization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
