The benefits and challenges of shared leadership in sport for development and peace collaboratives

ABSTRACT Inadequate leadership is a common reason for the failure of multi-organizational collaboratives, yet limited attention has been given to explore the role of shared leadership in these types of collaborations. The purpose of this study was therefore to explore the perceived benefits and challenges of shared leadership in two multi-organizational collaboratives in Sport for Development and Peace (SDP). Semi-structured interviews (n = 30) with members along with publicly available documents were analyzed. Perceived benefits of shared leadership included (a) collective impact, (b) collective learning, (c) network capacity, (d) cohesion and (e) shared responsibilities. At the same time, challenges were centered around (a) challenging leadership dynamics, (b) varying levels of information sharing, (c) lack of understanding of shared leadership and (d) inconsistent quality of engagement. This study contributes to sport management literature by focusing on practitioners’ lived experiences of the positive outcomes and possible barriers to shared leadership in the context of multi-organizational collaboratives. HIGHLIGHTS Empirical research of outcomes of shared leadership in sport for development and peace. Benefits of shared leadership include improved collective impact, collective learning, network capacity, cohesion and shared responsibilities. Challenges of shared leadership were centered around challenging leadership dynamics, varying levels of information sharing, lack of understanding of shared leadership and inconsistent quality of engagement. The role of shared leadership to improve sustainability of SDP partnerships. Implications for better leveraging collaborative leadership approach in the context of multi-organizational SDP collaboratives.