Resumo

At the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, scholars pointed out collaborative leadership as a relevant topic to Public Administration. Due to the expansion of the field, different contemporary leadership theories and concepts have emerged. In 2010, with the publication of the special issue in The Leadership Quarterly, the authors defended the use of the term integrative public leadership and emphasized the delivery of public value.

An increase in the number of papers from 2010 to 2020 about collaborative leadership is observed, but many questions are unanswered. This study aims to clarify the academic literature development regarding integrative public leadership, identify emerging approaches to research within that literature, and suggest directions for future research. To answer the question “How the field of study of integrative leadership has developed, and what are the prospects for the future?”, a systematic literature review (SLR) utilizing the PRISMA 2020 protocol was conducted.

Integrative leadership is the leader’s capacity to “bring diverse groups and organizations together in semi-permanent ways, and typically across sector boundaries, to remedy complex public problems and achieve the common good” (Crosby & Bryson, 2010. p. 211). It encompasses intra and inter-organizational boundaries (McGuire, 2006). Collaborative public managers operate in multiorganizational arrangements to remedy problems that cannot be solved by single organizations. It means developing partnerships across organizational, and sectoral boundaries that create public value (Morse, 2010).

The applied methodology followed the Prisma protocol, adapted in some of its stages because it is in the area of public administration. The selection of articles followed a list of search terms in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, ensuring a wide coverage of the studied field. The final selection followed a series of criteria described in depth in the methodology section noted in the paper.

Integrative, network, and collaborative leadership are backgrounded in the same theoretical roots and are used interchangeably. The conceptual pillars of the construct are cross-boundary collaboration; formal and non-formal leaders; public value delivery. Most studies are from North America; are empirical and there is a certain balance regarding the nature of the research type (17 quantitative and 23 qualitative). The existing scales don’t capture all its pillars. A group of studies focuses on leadership development and others on the impact on public performance.

The analysis of 54 records showed that there remain opportunities in critical areas for further research: (i) the development of new measures for capturing the phenomenon in various settings; (ii) research on different cultural contexts, such as South America; (iii) the adoption of standardized methods with multilevel analyzes, longitudinal studies, and mixed-methods; (iv) the investigation of individual drivers that stimulate integrative leadership behaviors (previous experiences, values, attitudes, leader identity); and (v) the impact of collaborative leadership on increasing public value.

Crosby, B. C., & Bryson, J. M. (2010). Integrative leadership and the creation and maintenance of cross-sector collaborations. The leadership quarterly, 21(2), 211-230. McGuire, M. (2006). Collaborative public management: Assessing what we know and how we know it. Public administration review, 66, 33-43. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6210.2006.00664.x Morse, R. S. (2010). Integrative public leadership: Catalyzing collaboration to create public value. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(2), 231-245.