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Leading and participating: examining collaborative leadership
Book chapter

Leading and participating: examining collaborative leadership

Lynn Berger, Susan Evans, Caroline Lambert, Erica Russ, Melissa Petrakis, Louise Whitaker, Caroline Walters, Liz Reimer, Mark Woolven and Monica Short
Research Handbook on Leadership in Social Work and Social Care, pp.139-150
Elgar Handbooks on Social Work, Edward Elgar Publishing
23/09/2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035314508.00020

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Abstract

leadership collaboration social work social care co-operative inquiry practioner-research
Leadership in social care, which embodies social justice, calls for inclusive, collaborative approaches. However, participatory and consensus-driven decision-making is regularly stifled by neo-liberal and managerial constraints, including the adoption of simplistic practices despite complex group dynamics. In this chapter, ten authors examine our situated experiences as practitioners, advocates, and academics in diverse fields related to social work, community engagement, and lived experience advocacy. Each author has over ten years of experience leading project-orientated teams grounded in collaboration, inclusion, and egalitarian principles. Using co-operative inquiry, we collectively and critically reflected on three scenarios drawn from the experiences of three of us enacting inclusive, participatory leadership processes informed by social work principles. Challenges in the influence of power and politics, shaping processes and outcomes, and the burden of holding elements to sustain participatory leadership emerged. Strategies that helped the authors harness the transformational potential of participatory leadership and address its challenges are discussed.

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