Goal-attainment in collaborative climate governance: the role of agile leadership practices in spurring collaborative outputs

The public management literature on collaborative governance has long recognized the vital role of collaborative leadership. Nonetheless, we have limited understanding of the specific tasks and practices of collaborative leaders and how these practices enable or inhibit collaborative outputs. This article presents a conceptual framework linking collaborative outputs with three collaborative leadership tasks and practices: foundational, process-oriented, and agile leadership practices. The framework is applied across two multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSP) oriented towards decarbonization in international shipping. Based on 34 interviews and 101 documents, findings demonstrate the important role of exercising the three types of collaborative leadership tasks at different points in the collaboration. Meanwhile, agile leadership practices such as rotational stakeholder inclusion and rapid development and testing of ideas are particularly adept at enabling climate-related outputs from collaborative arrangements.