The Dynamics of Collective Leadership and Strategic Change in Pluralistic Organizations

This paper draws on two sets of process case studies in the health care field to examine how strategic change can be managed in pluralistic organisations where power is diffuse and objectives are divergent. It is suggested that the creation of a collective leadership group in which members play distinct but tightly-knit and complementary roles is a critical factor in achieving substantive change. However, collective leadership is fragile. We identify three types and levels of "coupling" called strategic (between members of the leadership team), organisational (between leadership team members and their internal constituencies) and environmental (between the team and the organisation's external environment) that need to be mobilized to permit change. We argue that since it is difficult to maintain coupling at all levels simultaneously, change tends to proceed by fits and starts, with sequential coupling and uncoupling over time at different levels. In fact, strategic change in pluralistic contexts is viewed as a succession of episodes in which leadership group members may promote change through their actions, but where these actions simultaneously alter the future form and viability of the leadership group because their legitimacy is constantly being re-evaluated by powerful constituencies. Our studies indicate that change is feasible in such contexts, but that it tends to be sporadic and unpredictable. However, the analysis also suggests that as the degree of complexity and pluralism increases and as slack resources become scarcer, the conditions necessary to protect change initiatives long enough for them to become irreversible are more and more difficult to establish.