Leadership In The Shaping And Implementation Of Collaboration Agendas: How Things Happen In A (Not Quite) Joined-Up World

Abstract

This article contributes to the theory of collaboration in social settings and is based on data collected during action research interventions in a number of public and community interorganizational collaborations. We conceptualize leadership in collaborations as stemming from three leadership media—structures, processes, and participants—and argue that none of these is wholly within the control of the members of a collaboration. Leadership activities that participants undertake in order to move a collaborative agenda forward are described.