ABSTRACT
Co-leadership is situated between the organization's board and their direct reports, the specialty managers. Certain arts management scholars propose that shared or distributed leadership is an ideal organizational dynamic. When an individual co-leader actively pursues the expertise of their adjacent managers in decision-making, this invitation into the shared executive role space can generate distributed leadership. On the other hand, senior managers themselves undertake the distribution of leadership when co-leaders are perceived as not fulfilling their responsibilities within the role space. Role theory offers role crafting as an explanation of how this deficit in the co-leader relationship generates a different form of distributed leadership. Distributed leadership initiated by co-leaders versus senior managers is illustrated through a range of practices, demonstrating how distributed leadership is not always a purposeful and positive extended fulfilment of plural leadership.
