This book is about co-leadership: a leadership practice and structure often found in arts organizations that consists of two or three executives who bridge the art and business divide at the top.

This book is about co-leadership: A leadership practice and structure often found in arts organizations that consist of two or three executives who bridge the art and business divide at the top.

Many practitioners recognize this phenomenon but the research on this topic is limited and dispersed. This book assembles a coherent overview and presents new insights of the field. While co-leadership is well institutionalized in the West, it is also criticized for management's constraint of artistic autonomy and for its pluralism that dilutes leadership clarity. However, co-leadership also personifies the strategic objectives of art, audiences, organization, and community, by addressing plural logics - navigating the demands of artistic vision and organizational stability. It is an integrating solution. The authors investigate its specifics in the arts, including global practice and its interdisciplinary nature. The theoretical frame of plural leadership supports their empirical explorations of the dynamics within the co-leadership relationship and with organizational stakeholders. Data includes the voices of co-leaders, artists, staff, and board members from arts organizations in Canada and Norway. Their abductive reflection generates a stimulating research experience.

By viewing co-leadership in action, not as a study of static theories, the book will appeal not only to students and researchers but also resonate with practitioners in arts and cultural management and assist them to work with co-leadership and to manage its tensions.

Chapters 1 and 4 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Autorentext

Wendy Reid is an Honourary Professor with the Management Department of HEC Montréal (retired summer 2021 formerly Associate Professor) after an executive career in arts management in Canada.

Hilde Fjellvær is Associate Professor with the NTNU Business School and a member of the Faculty Board. She is Chair of the Board at Rosendal Teater in Trondheim, Norway.

Inhalt

1. Introducing and Summarizing the Book Section I: Framing the Research 2. Interpreting Organizational Context for Arts Co-Leadership 3. Parsing Co-Leadership Theory for the Arts 4. Situating Co-Leadership in the Arts Globally Section II: Theorizing Relational Dynamics in Arts Co-Leadership 5. Working with Interdependence 6. Challenging Equality 7. Contending with Ambiguity and Vulnerability Section III: Theorizing Organizational Dynamics with Arts Co-Leadership 8. Managing Risk 9. Following and Influencing Co-Leaders Section IV: Structuring Co-leadership Research and Practice 10. Charting Insights and a Future Research Course