research-article

Effectiveness of shared leadership in online communities

Authors:

Aniket KitturAuthors Info & Claims

CSCW '12: Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work

Pages 407 - 416

https://doi.org/10.1145/2145204.2145269

Published: 11 February 2012 Publication History

Abstract

Traditional research on leadership in online communities has consistently focused on the small set of people occupying leadership roles. In this paper, we use a model of shared leadership, which posits that leadership behaviors come from members at all levels, not simply from people in high-level leadership positions. Although every member can exhibit some leadership behavior, different types of leadership behavior performed by different types of leaders may not be equally effective. This paper investigates how distinct types of leadership behaviors (transactional, aversive, directive and person-focused) and the legitimacy of the people who deliver them (people in formal leadership positions or not) influence the contributions that other participants make in the context of Wikipedia. After using propensity score matching to control for potential pre-existing differences among those who were and were not targets of leadership behaviors, we found that 1) leadership behaviors performed by members at all levels significantly influenced other members' motivation; 2) transactional leadership and person-focused leadership were effective in motivating others to contribute more, whereas aversive leadership decreased other contributors' motivations; and 3) legitimate leaders were in general more influential than regular peer leaders. We discuss the theoretical and practical implication of our work.

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Cited By

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https://doi.org/10.56294/sctconf2024659
Zhang S(2024)Uncovering Peer Production's Homogeneity: A Synthesis of Serious Information and EntertainmentProceedings of the 35th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media10.1145/3648188.3675145(369-375)Online publication date: 10-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3648188.3675145
Yin YGuo LThebault-Spieker J(2024)Productivity or Equity? Tradeoffs in Volunteer Microtasking in Humanitarian OpenStreetMapProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36373908:CSCW1(1-34)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
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Index Terms

Effectiveness of shared leadership in online communities
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
    1. Collaborative and social computing theory, concepts and paradigms
      1. Computer supported cooperative work
  2. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Interaction paradigms
      1. Web-based interaction
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing and business
      1. Computer supported cooperative work

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cover image ACM Conferences

CSCW '12: Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work

February 2012

1460 pages

ISBN:9781450310864

DOI:10.1145/2145204

General Chairs:
Steven Poltrock
Boeing Research & Technology
,
Carla Simone
University of Milano-Biccoca
,
Program Chairs:
Jonathan Grudin
Microsoft Research
,
Gloria Mark
University of California, Irvine
,
John Riedl
University of Minnesota

Copyright © 2012 ACM.

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Published: 11 February 2012

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CSCW '12: Computer Supported Cooperative Work

February 11 - 15, 2012

Washington, Seattle, USA

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CSCW '12 Paper Acceptance Rate 164 of 415 submissions, 40%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 2,235 of 8,521 submissions, 26%

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https://doi.org/10.56294/sctconf2024659
Zhang S(2024)Uncovering Peer Production's Homogeneity: A Synthesis of Serious Information and EntertainmentProceedings of the 35th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media10.1145/3648188.3675145(369-375)Online publication date: 10-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3648188.3675145
Yin YGuo LThebault-Spieker J(2024)Productivity or Equity? Tradeoffs in Volunteer Microtasking in Humanitarian OpenStreetMapProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36373908:CSCW1(1-34)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
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Kharazian ZStarbird KHill B(2024)Governance Capture in a Self-Governing Community: A Qualitative Comparison of the Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Serbo-Croatian WikipediasProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36373388:CSCW1(1-26)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
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