Leadership transmission: a muddled metaphor?

The purpose of this paper is to examine critically the concept of “leadership transmission”, considering what theoretical and practical value this metaphor brings to the healthcare modernization agenda.

The paper develops understanding of the transmission metaphor, whilst theoretical perspectives on leadership are reviewed, including debates, which shed light on the concept by focusing on the phenomenon of distributed or dispersed leadership.

The transmission metaphor is perhaps misleading, by implying that “leadership can be caught” like a disease. However, defining leadership in terms of influence, a novel typology of transmission processes is introduced; top down (one‐way), inter‐organizational (bi‐lateral), and dispersed (multi‐directional). Recent research suggests that organizational changes are often led by the spontaneous concertive action of staff at all levels, not just by senior élite groups. The way in which dispersed influence processes arise, unfold, and are transmitted into organizational outcomes can be understood through theoretical narratives, which capture event sequences and combinations of factors unfolding over time in a given context. Given the scale and pace of the change agenda, healthcare modernization may indeed depend on widely dispersed leadership.

It is therefore necessary to establish the conditions in which leadership transmission is encouraged, to recognize, support, and develop the “unsung heroes” who assume change leadership positions, and to widen the agenda and coverage of NHS leadership development programmes.

There is currently no other commentary, empirical or theoretical, academic or professional, which examines critically the concept of leadership transmission, while exploring the nature of this perspective, and its theoretical and practical value.