DEBATE: When you try to share out the management task by involving employees, you can end up turning what should have been more management into less management if you don't watch out for a number of pitfalls, write researchers from Aarhus University.
We know this. Good leadership in the public sector depends on both the manager and the employees going the extra mile. We also know that when employees are involved in management work and given room for maneuver, job satisfaction and motivation increase. And we know that in many organizations, it is a necessity that the formal manager shares his or her management task with the employees if the manager is to achieve his or her goals.
That's why we research distributed leadership. A form of leadership where management tasks are shared between the manager and the employees, as is the case in shared leadership, collective leadership and similar approaches that are about spreading management to more hands in the organization. That's why we are eagerly awaiting an upcoming proximity reform that will give more room for maneuver locally.
JOIN OUR COURSE
Build wellbeing and trust despite the distance
The "Managing Virtual and Hybrid Work Communities" course gives you the essential tools to increase productivity and well-being through remote management.
This is a course for those who work in management and want to know how to achieve strategic goals as an individual or organization through virtual collaboration.
Not everyone is involved
In principle, involvement in management tasks is for all employees. But in practice, that's not always how it works. In many organizations, only a few employees are involved. This may be because the employees' participation in solving the management task should ideally fit both the employees' interests and their skills.
Not all employees want to be involved in leadership. And not all employees have the skills required to be involved, for example, in planning or coordinating the work of the organization.
In these situations, the ambition to increase management capacity can therefore end up placing managers, employees who are involved in the management task, and other employees in a kind of managerial Bermuda Triangle that actually reduces the management power in the organization.
