Collective leadership in collaborative practice: a qualitative secondary analysis of how plural leadership is enacted in practice

Research on interprofessional collaboration often includes the assumption that leadership is enacted individually. However, collaboration involves a form of leadership, sometimes known as <i>plural leadership</i>, that occurs from the combined influence of individuals. We examined plural leadership in practice for the purpose of informing strategies to support leadership specifically, and interprofessional collaboration more generally. We conducted a secondary analysis of 13 semi-structured interviews collected as part of a larger study on interprofessional collaboration in long-term care. First, we categorized data using concepts theorized from research on plural leadership. Next, we identified themes within each of the categories that represented how plural leadership is enacted according to the concepts. We then combined these themes to arrive at three actionable ways that plural leadership is enacted in long-term care: familiarity to create leaders; sharing and empathy to foster leadership; and structuring leadership. We use these to offer some practical approaches based on evidence and theory to support plural leadership in practice. Strategies include supporting staff continuity, providing space to share knowledge, and equipping team members with tools for navigating organizational structures. Our work contributes theoretical ideas about how to study and support leadership in collaboration.