Leveraging distributed leadership for effective services delivery in the library system

Abstract

The emerging library services called for rethinking the roles of leadership on library operations, with a focus on enhancing flexible and fluid processes aimed at boosting creativity, drive innovations and achieve significant changes across various components of a library system. This paper argues for leveraging Distributed Leadership for effective services delivery in the library system, by acknowledging that Distributed Leadership makes every library personnel qualified of becoming leaders if they have special expertise or value to contribute to the achievement of library goals. It highlights autonomy, accountability, capacity, coaching, shared responsibility, reflection and feedback as attributes that make Distributed Leadership effective for delivery of library services. Distributed Leadership benefits libraries’ personnel on ideas sharing, taking innovation, fostering collaborations among personnel and offers more leadership options to libraries; while the challenges of Distributed Leadership include fostering higher expectations and promoting uncertainty. This paper recommends among others that formal library leaders should always cooperate and collaborate with personnel elevated to leadership position based on their skills and expertise.

Introduction

Libraries are social institutions devoted to the collection, organisation, preservation, conservation, storage, access, retrieval, dissemination and utilisation of information materials in all formats. They are intellectual repositories containing books and other information resources collected, organized, preserved, maintained and used to serve the reading, referencing, recreation and research purposes of the users (Sulyman et al., 2021) in every society.

The roles of libraries have evolved overtime to respond to the ever-changing information needs of disparate users. This makes library leaders viewed libraries as systems, which contain different components working together to achieve common objectives – provision of information to users. Libraries' components, which are commonly referred to as departments, sections or units are organized, designed to be interdependent and interact among themselves for the motive of supporting the library system work efficiently and effectively.

Efficiency and effectiveness in libraries are concerned with placing the right library personnel at the right departments, sections or units housing the right information resources, with the objective of using the information resources to provide the right information to the right users at the right time. The journey towards the achievement of efficiency and effectiveness in libraries cannot be traveled without a leadership practice channeled towards exploiting the expertise of library personnel.

That type of leadership is known as Distributed Leadership. Johnston (2015) argues for Distributed Leadership in libraries because it consists of a shared set of responsibilities that may be distributed among libraries' personnel and leaders. Distributed Leadership supports library personnel to collaborate and bring ideas and expertise together so that their collective action achieves more than their individual actions and serves as a catalyst for library service development and innovation (Goulding and Walton, 2014).

Ashiq et al. (2022) observed that Distributed Leadership is a less focused area in Librarianship. But some scholars such as Jenn (2022) and Johnston (2015) have argued that Distributed Leadership was propounded to erase the belief that leadership is often held in one person. Distributed Leadership proves that leadership roles are distributed among multiple individuals, who have the skills and capabilities to contribute to the success of the library (Robert, 2019). This serves the premise for this paper to leverage Distributed Leadership for effective services delivery in the library system.

Concept of distributed leadership

Distributed Leadership came into being as an advancement of previous leadership works by Elmore and Grunn (Spillane, 2006). Scholars have submitted that a variety of models and definitions of Distributed Leadership exist; but most of them share two common propositions that leadership is a shared process in which several individuals take part and that leadership emerges from the interactions of the different individuals within a group where essential skills and knowledge are dispersed among many (Spillane, 2006, 2015; Johnston, 2015).

In 2006, Spillane propounded the theory of Distributed Leadership basing it on three propositions that:

(1) Leadership practice is the central concern;

(2) Leadership practice is distributed over leaders, followers, and the organization’s situation or context;

(3) A situation defines leadership practice and is defined through leadership practice (Johnston, 2015).

Johnston (2015) noted that Spillane (2006) integrates social distribution theory and also illustrated the belief that leadership functions are stretched over the work of a number of individuals and the tasks are accomplished through the interactions of multiple leaders and notably shifts from investigating leaders to investigating leadership practices.

Spillane (2006) proposes Distributed Leadership as an analytical framework and a diagnostic tool to help researchers and practitioners explore how the practice of leadership is “stretched over” multiple leaders, followers, and the situation or for understanding organisation's leadership practice. The situation is an integral component of leadership practice and Spillane asserts that the contextual situation of leadership defines leadership practice and influences interactions between leaders and followers and that the situation and structures through which people act determine how leadership practice is fundamentally enabled or constrained (Spillane, 2015; Johnston, 2015).

Elmore (as cited in Johnston, 2015) defines Distributed Leadership through expertise, or the knowledge, skills, interest, predispositions, or aptitudes, that people within an organization either possess or develop. Based on the assumption that all members in an organization can lead where they have expertise, Distributed Leadership therefore argues that leadership can be shared. It sees leadership as the “complement of competencies that all persons in the organization possess that allow for a fluid leadership."

Johnston (2015) acknowledges that leadership demands have increased so that they are greater than one individual, and Distributed Leadership theory promotes a situation not where one individual does something to others, but one where multiple people work together in such a way that they pool together their abilities and expertise to facilitate an outcome that is greater than the sum of their individual actions. The need to focus on sharing tasks, roles and responsibilities and the increased demands on organisations' leaders in the ever changing world became the impetus to shift from the disillusionment of the individual leader (Hulpia et al., 2012; Spillane, 2006).

Distributed Leadership theory is proposed as a means of in-depth analysis of the practice of organisations' leaders in order to understand the dynamics of leadership practice and proposes that leadership function is stretched over the work of a number of individuals (Spillane as cited in Johnston, 2015). It emphasizes the importance of interconnectivity and teamwork rather than a top-down leadership framework. The goal of this approach is to develop leaders who use their expertise to contribute to the mission of the organization. Those in leadership roles make decisions based on mutual trust and responsibility. This style relies on a horizontal structure where leadership opportunities are flexible and fluid within the organization. This makes team members qualified of becoming leaders if they have special expertise or value to contribute to a project (Jenn, 2022).

Distributed leadership and library system

Leadership refers to activities tied to the core work of the organization that are designed by organizational members to influence motivation, knowledge or practices of other organizational members or that are understood by organizational members as intended to influence their motivation, knowledge or practices (Spillane, 2006). Leadership serves as the backbone for the activities performed to ensure that organizational members contribute to achieving the organization objectives and goals.

The beauty of a system is inherent in its design to continuously respond to changes and evolving practices. Library practices are evolving, causing a need for a shift in the traditional library practices. The emerging library services call for flexible and fluid processes hinged on boosting creativity, drive innovations and rethinking library services in order to enhance job satisfaction and achieve significant changes across various components of a library system.

Libraries as organized systems require personnel who specialize or develop skills that are related to their interests, aptitudes, prior knowledge and roles. Distributed leadership has emerged in libraries as a possible method for dealing with the increased responsibilities and pressures placed upon (Johnston, 2015) library leaders on the accomplishment of tasks and achievement of library missions in an efficient way by recognizing the varied skills and expertise of library personnel and engaging multiple personnel, both in formal and informal leadership positions in leadership practices (Johnston, 2015).

Libraries as information handling institutions or agencies that collect, organise, store, retrieve and disseminate information suitable for recreation, research, reference and educational interests and needs of target users are expected to carry out different activities in order to achieve their missions and fulfill their mandates. Simplifying the performance of their activities, libraries are usually segregated into distinct components, such as departments, divisions, sections or units. Activities carried out in the departments, sections or units must be influenced by the library personnel that can inspire and motivate other personnel.

Johnston (2015) argues that the abilities to inspire and motivate have nothing or little to do with being a library manager or administrator; but has much to do with leading tasks and discharging duties based on expertise and capacities. This calls for Distributed Leadership which fundamentally believes that the strength of library leadership is spread across departments, sections, units or teams, rather than concentrating on an individual leader. For instance, the technical activities are the behind-the-scenes activities performed to make information resources readily available to users. Applying Distributed Leadership for these services involves assigning tasks and roles to library personnel based on their skills and expertise and not their authority in the library.

Distributed Leadership is befitting to a library system because it proposes that tasks or problems at hand should determine how leadership is distributed to library personnel that have the knowledge or expertise to contribute to leadership tasks and to the common goal of the library (Spillane, 2006, 2015). Library personnel are the bridges between the library services and library structure. Distributed Leadership therefore proposes that libraries can share decision-making power across team members. This method makes libraries leadership a shared responsibility in which libraries' leaders carry out the goals of libraries (Robert, 2019; Jenn, 2022).

Attributes of distributed leadership useful for effective services delivery in the library system

Distributed Leadership has some practices and elements that make it unique to other leadership styles. It places emphasis on expertise or experience rather than status. Its attributes can be effective to services delivery in libraries in different situations because it shared the authority and accountability of leadership roles. It is much more branched and has more potential to develop layers of leadership interdependent to each other (Mahaffey, 2022).

The following are the attributes of Distributed Leadership according to Spillane (2006); Indeed Editorial Team (2022):

(1) Autonomy: Distributed Leadership encourages the act of functioning independently and opportunity to make informed decision without being coerced by the authority. In Distributed Leadership, libraries will function on their own with no interference from the external system. With this, libraries’ sections will have the freedom to make decisions based on the needs to achieve their objectives.

(2) Accountability: This implies the acceptance of one's responsibilities and its consequences. Since libraries as a system has been granted autonomy through Distributed Leadership, it is thus imperative that library leaders across departments, divisions, sections or units must be ready to take responsibility for their actions and their consequences on the library services.

(3) Capacity: Distributed Leadership encourages assigning tasks to people based on their competence and skills. It enables library personnel to hold leadership positions based on their expertise and acumen to discharge duties accordingly.

(4) Coaching: This is the process by which library personnel are trained, tutored or mentored. Distributed Leadership allows library personnel to learn from their leaders by sharing or transferring knowledge. In Distributed Leadership, teaching and grooming of potential library leaders is not solely about hierarchy; it is about developing others with knowledge.

(5) Shared Responsibility: Distributed Leadership involved sharing of roles among competent individuals. It allows library leaders to share responsibilities among their personnel based on their competences. This will promote role playing and accountability.

(6) Reflection and Feedback: Distributed Leadership encourages proper considerations and perspectives before making decisions. It also allows critiquing of activities and roles of leaders in the overall achievement of library goals.

Benefits of distributed leadership on effective services delivery in the library system

Distributed Leadership is a different leadership practice that empowers every library personnel to learn the art and science of leadership as they work on specific library goals. It also holds the potential of catapulting library personnel to the peak of leadership because it provides for them, avenues to showcase their expertise and demonstrate their skills. Spillane (2006); Johnston (2015), Robert (2019) and Indeed Editorial Team (2022) explained the following as benefits of Distributed Leadership:

(1) Library personnel can share ideas: Distributed Leadership is a great platform for leaders across library departments or sections to exchange ideas by fostering mutual learning. It facilitates interactions among library personnel on noble initiatives that can be implemented to make the library progress.

(2) Library personnel can innovate: Distributed Leadership serves as springboards for improving and revolutionizing library services. In this era where libraries' services are ICT-oriented, libraries' administrators/managers can employ Distributed Leadership to assign critical roles to their personnel by leveraging their ICT skills and expertise.

(3) Distributes larger vision with every library personnel: Distributed Leadership enables library personnel to share vision among themselves, and the communication between the administration becomes multi-level and more intricate. The vision or the bigger picture of any task or routine that one library personnel is doing is shown to others in order to motivate them. It also helps libraries to take advantage of different kinds or levels of expertise of the leaders and personnel in the library (Mahaffey, 2022).

(4) Library personnel can collaborate: Distributed Leadership creates room for library personnel to cooperate among themselves towards achieving a library's objectives and goals. Since skills and expertise are the major prerequisites for leadership, personnel from different departments can harmonize their efforts to achieve a common library cause.

(5) Library personnel can advance: Distributed Leadership facilitates continuous growth among library personnel. Also, it causes library personnel to progress in the direction of their interest.

(6) Retains the traditional chain-of-command: Distributed Leadership maintains the chain-of-command in the library, giving every competent library personnel a particular defined role within the library. Through Distributed Leadership, library leaders get more freedom to make informed decisions on behalf of the library.

(7) Offers more leadership options to libraries: Distributed Leadership focuses on skills and competences for any library personnel to be assigned leadership roles. This may lead to fuelling the desire of the library personnel to learn and acquire the necessary skills that can help them attain the mantle of leadership. The urge to learn can, therefore, give libraries leadership alternatives among their personnel.

Challenges of distributed leadership on effective services delivery in the library system

Distributed Leadership has several limitations that may make it difficult to be implemented in libraries; most especially in libraries their leaders are insecure. Spillane (2015); Harris (2013) and Mahaffey (2022) explained the following challenges of Distributed Leadership:

(1) Neglects the roles and responsibilities of formal leaders: The focus of Distributed Leadership on skills and expertise makes it to always extend leadership roles and responsibilities beyond the official library leaders. This may make the official library leaders neglected and feel sidelined (Torrance, 2013).

(2) Promotes uncertainty: When libraries are bringing multiple people into the shared leadership, with diverse opinions, different skill sets, experiences, and even agendas, conflict is bound to happen. There are different opinions that do help and create strength over time but often cripple critical decision-making at the present moment (Mahaffey, 2022).

(3) Reduces the pace of decision-making: With Distributed Leadership, there are many voices when it comes to zero down to a decision. Since every voice needed to be heard as it should be, the decision-making process certainly was going to take a toll on its procedural time (Mahaffey, 2022).

(4) Foster higher expectations: Distributed Leadership becomes a problem for efficient running of libraries because since its practices are permeated on skills and expertise, libraries' personnel assigned leadership roles may be burdened with expectations exceeding their competences.

(5) Difficult to operationalize: Distributed Leadership is not easy to operationalize because the criteria for choosing leaders are central around skills and expertise. Superiors who don't meet the criteria can result in sabotaging the efforts of other personnel and frustrating the achievement of the library's objectives.

(6) Needs to have leaders with specified experience: The deployment of Distributed Leadership in libraries is being challenged by the need to assign libraries' personnel with specific skills leadership roles. This becomes difficult when a library is in shortage of skills required to carry out certain functions.

(7) May foster conflicts and arguments: Since Distributed Leadership is concerned with leveraging libraries' personnel's skills without officially making them leaders, it often leads to problems between the official leaders and distributed leaders.

Conclusion and recommendations

Libraries operate with motives of meeting diverse information needs of users. To achieve their motives, libraries structured their operations and routines into different departments, sections or units by sharing roles and responsibilities among personnel who have the skills and expertise needed in each department or section to contribute its quota to the overall achievement of libraries’ goals. The prioritization of skills and expertise in the running of libraries will help in promoting the ease and quality of services provided by libraries.

Based on the above, this study recommends the following:

(1) Formal library leaders should always cooperate and collaborate with personnel elevated to leadership position based on their skills and expertise. This will help the formal leaders develop the skills and expertise and consequently results to achieving the overall library goals.

(2) Libraries and their personnel should endeavour to prioritize the investing in their skills and competence. This will equip them with the skills and expertise needed to thrive in specific roles and responsibilities which may require bringing their subordinates ahead of them.