Dual Leadership: An Example of How Leadership Might be Shared in a Non-Profit Organisation

Abstract

The concept of leadership is deeply rooted in our culture and the common understanding is that there is one leader and a group of followers; however, examples of leadership being shared in different ways have increased over the last two decades. The Swedish Scout Movement planned and realised the large, international scout camp World Scout Jamboree 2011 with two leaders appointed to every leadership position. Two leaders equal in the hierarchy is here called a dual leadership and this article discusses why an organisation chooses to work with dual leadership and explores, through surveys and interviews, how such a leadership might work in practice by focusing on the Jamboree project. The leadership worked very differently between leader pairs; however, a common denominator is the perceived need to act as if the two were one. When asking the leaders, there is a strong, positive feeling surrounding dual leadership; however, the followers do not completely agree. Non-profit organisations, which focus on morality and democracy, have a stronger incentive to work with dual leadership than what corporate organisations have.