When shared leadership does not share authority: delegation, voice and accountability in a cross-border higher education partnership

Abstract International higher education partnerships increasingly rely on shared leadership arrangements, yet shared responsibility does not necessarily entail shared authority. This article examines how delegation, decision rights, accountability and voice were negotiated within a cross-border higher education partnership operating through a dual co-director arrangement. Using a self-reflective critical incident approach, the analysis draws primarily on contemporaneous reflective notes and three reconstructed incidents from a routine partnership project, with project records used to support chronology. Distributed leadership and micropolitical perspectives are used to examine how decision rights, quality standards and routes for challenge shaped everyday coordination. Across the incidents, responsibility was distributed before decision authority was fully specified; staff sometimes had to infer whose judgement was final when leadership signals diverged; and substantive concerns could remain outside formal review even when participation was invited. The analysis identifies an infrastructure of shared authority comprising decision rights, review standards, sign-off arrangements and routes for challenge. It contributes to research on higher education leadership by showing how authority is enacted through ordinary routines of delegation, review and voice in cross-border partnership work.