Uncovering the Shared Leadership Power-Distance Paradox Through Social Network Analysis.

Shared leadership, where leadership is distributed among team members rather than concentrated in a single formal leader, is increasingly recognised as beneficial for teams and their members. However, little is known about how it operates across cultures. Drawing on a cross-national dataset of 164 football teams from eight countries (N = 2,807 players and coaches), this study used social network analysis to examine whether and how leadership structures vary as a function of power-distance. Although shared leadership was observed across all cultures, it was notably more prevalent in high power-distance contexts. This pattern held consistently across leadership roles (task, motivational, social, and external) and across different levels of analysis (team- and country-level power-distance). To understand this pattern, we examined whether cross-cultural differences could be attributed to the perceived quality of formal leaders or the average quality of the peer leadership group. There was little variation on these indicators, suggesting that the greater prevalence of shared leadership in high power-distance cultures was primarily driven by higher overall peer leadership quality. These findings challenge prevailing theories and suggest that shared leadership is not culturally contingent. Accordingly, the principles of shared leadership can and should be taught, implemented, and promoted across cultures.