The Study Of Shared Leadership Theory

Shared leadership is a dynamic and interactive process in a group, in which individuals share vision, power, responsibility, knowledge, skills, information, feedback, and emotional through cooperation and trust. Shared leadership theory has important implications for organizational leadership and change; scholars of Western countries are increasingly concerned about the positive impact of shared leadership theories on the team. It is a new highlight of the21st Century in the study of Leadership and Management field.The research shows shared leadership theory through literature analysis, including theory contents, the emergence and development of shared leadership theory, preliminary evaluation and prospect of shared leadership. Shared leadership in school leadership and management practices is the focus of this study.Shared leadership is horizontal, decentralized, autonomous, collaborative, collective behavior compared with the traditional style of leadership, shared leadership does not exclude the traditional bureaucratic centralized leadership, it is not equal to no-leadership state, nor does it mean that organizations can no longer delegate leaders, more do not lead to multiple leadership. And vertical leader plays an important role in the development of shared leadership. The three characteristics of knowledge work as well as the need of modern organizations change are necessary factors of the birth on the shared leadership. Application condition is different in enterprises, medical institutions and non-profit organizations.The time of the seeds on shared leadership is in the1920s, but it was1980s until theoretical research rose. Now it is a period of vigorous development of shared leadership. It has a wide range of its theoretical origins, including the concepts and theories in leadership, psychology, management science, and sociology. Studies have shown a positive impact of the shared leadership in different organization, especially on team members’ attitudes, cognition, behavior, performance and so on, which has attract more attention of researchers.Shared leadership theory id in a state of developing, it is not mature, so it both has many advantage and some limitations and shortcomings, the evaluation should be objective. But we should also pay attention to its positive significance.Shared leadership has a significant effect of on enhance school leadership and improve school performance, which can be seen in many cases of shared leadership application in schools in foreign countries. This study presents the process of school development of shared leadership and the role of principals, teachers and students in this process. Finally we discuss the necessity and possibility of shared leadership application in Chinese school, and the strategy to use this philosophy including building school leadership community, empowering and creating sharing, cooperative school culture, establishing collaborative team of teachers, encouraging students to participate in shared leadership, developing leadership ability of school members.