Identifying Situational and Contextual Factors of Distributed Leadership Effectiveness: Multiple Case Study of Interdisciplinary Educational Major Founding Teams of Sharif University of Technology

Using distributed leadership model in studying the leadership phenomenon in teams at educational environment has received more attention by scholars in recent years. Distributed leadership has been studied in teams which introduced new interdisciplinary programs, updated curriculum, or engaged in interdisciplinary research and educational areas. Although the results of these researches indicated positive consequences in most of cases, the need for exploratory studies to identify situational and contextual factors in distributed leadership effectiveness has been mentioned. In other words, it has been suggested that the effectiveness of distributed leadership in teams may be affected by situational and contextual factors. In the current multiple case study, after the initial study of leadership and its functions in some schools of Sharif University of Technology, new educational major founding teams were selected for deeper case study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed with grounded theory approach. Comparison of cases’ results with each other based on “building theory from case studies” approach revealed three categories of situational and contextual factors; including factors related to: teams’ goals and objectives, members and environment. These factors affect distributed leadership effectiveness through facilitating the process and strengthening distributed leadership practice in teams. Finally, based on the findings and theoretical arguments, future research propositions have been suggested.