The contributions and challenges of distributed leadership culture in UK higher education: A critical literature review

Distributed Leadership (DL) has become increasingly common in UK higher education institutions over the last two decades. Despite this increase in DL practice, the contributions and challenges of this particular model of leadership are still less known. This study explores DL's contributions and challenges in the leadership of UK higher education institutions. The study adopts a critical literature review because many publications are available in the body of literature which have yet to be brought into a synthesis. The search was conducted in EBSCO, ERIC, ProQuest, Google Scholar, and LibSearch (Oxford Brookes University Library). The review selected seven studies and analysed them using content analysis. The findings indicate that DL in UK higher education contributes to formal processes, pragmatic, strategic, incremental, opportunistic, and cultural. Again, the study highlights that DL in UK higher education institutions can sometimes be associated with complexities, conflicts of interest, lack of clarity, and increased workload. These findings are discussed further in this study. It is concluded that DL is significantly practised in UK higher education, and the insights presented in this review help policymakers or leaders to adjust and 'finetune' their leadership planning and processes to achieve effective leadership. However, this review has its limitations, including small sample studies reviewed, and a rigorous selection process could have missed other critical studies, but future studies should use more significant small primary studies to confirm the outcome of this study. Keywords: Distributed leadership, UK higher education, contributions, challenges, critical literature review