Leadership in education and traditional management theory face the challenges of advancing a theory and practice for twenty-first century organization. This article approaches the potential for new frames of reference on leadership through the correlations between the emergent theory of distributed leadership and the philosophy of shared governance in higher education. In clarifying distributed leadership, research provides directions for further theory development. The leadership theory offers much for postsecondary education if conceptualized within the structure of shared governance, and shared governance itself proves valuable to advancing distributed leadership. Developing the integrative power of the theories remains constructive for both leadership in education and the field of organizational behavior (OB).
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