Enacting Organizational Improvisation as Shared Leadership: A Case Study of Human Relationships Emerging in the Moment

This research explored the dynamic co-emergence (Thompson, 2007) of shared leadership and organizational improvisation in an organization of four teachers who perform together as jazz musicians. The objective was twofold: to describe the experience of members of a collaborative organization and to explain the impact that shared leadership and organizational improvisation had on each individual in the organization. The primary research question was: What is the role of organizational improvisation in relation to shared leadership using the enactive approach?;The purpose of this study was to describe the role of organizational improvisation in shared leadership using the enactive approach. This study examined how dynamic co-emergence between components and processes could help organizations enact (Thompson, 2007) both performance and learning environments in the present moment. The research described how people in an organization collaborate in creative or improvisational ways with each other as they shift and share roles as leader and follower in a jazz performance context. The study was designed to increase understanding of the nature of shared leadership as organizational improvisation through examining leadership as a collective process generated by the relationships between band members as organizational components. The anticipated results of this study included grounded insight into the complexity of leadership that facilitates systemic organizational practices that benefit rather than hinder shared leadership actions and outcomes.