“truth”? Briggs (2004) indicates that out of this a number of “roles” for the new professional middle manager are emerging among which the most sensitive might be that of the middle manager as “leader”. Briggs highlights a dual manifestation of “a concern for supporting people and achieving results” and “a concern for shaping and sharing the vision”. An NCSL paper (Bennett et al 2003) suggests three distinct qualities of DL:
a group of individuals, emergent concerted action,
the openness of the boundaries, which brings people into the circle from wide arenas,
the power of a concertive dynamic which brings together a group of “experts” to create leadership capacity, where the sum is greater than the individual parts.
The first of these is seen as paramount to the process but also that they do not necessarily see a contradiction between the existence or activity of strong single/senior leadership, more that concerted action through relationships allows for strong partners in relationships which at the same time entail power disparities between them. 11
The NCSL paper cites Harris and Chapman (2002) who identify five strategies needed for school success. In doing this, however, they also introduce a further coterminus definition of DL with that of “democratic leadership”, which expresses the importance of values and equity in the process, but does not throw light on the nature of the behaviour that should be demonstrated. Harris and Chapman suggest that distributed leadership is part of a wider model of leadership that still stems from the tone, values and behaviour of the person at the top, and make a connection between the school context and the adoption of an additional notion of “democratic leadership”. They indicate that school leaders can adopt a form of leadership that allows collaboration and democratic activity to take place, which involves “distributive leadership” to take place throughout the organisation. They base their discussion in traditional forms of leadership, where the agenda is set at the top and the values and ethics driving the organisations are exemplified by the person in charge and the rest of the organisation is expected to follow. Spillane (2006) sees much more importance lying in the notions of “distributed cognitive and activity theory” around the central importance of sense making of the environment. Thus “the people, the history, the events, and the physical setting are all part of the situation wherein leadership is exercised, …..and that leadership can be co-enacted across a range of situations, involving both formal and informal organisational arrangements. Spillane argues that leadership responsibilities can be exercised in a wide range of positional and informal contexts, and the relationship between the micro and macro processes involved are key to their success.