Applying Distributed Leadership in Micro and Small Enterprises of

Kosovo

ARIANA XHEMAJLI

Department of Management,

College Biznesi,

(https://eng.kolegjibiznesi.com)

Pristina,

REPUBLIC OF KOSOVO

REPUBLIC OF KOSOVO

Abstract: - Discussions about distributed leadership and its effectiveness have been at the center of recent

leadership studies. This article aims to present the perceptions of micro and small enterprises staff in Kosovo,

regarding the practice of distributed leadership, the challenges of this application and the conditions that permit

Kosovo. 294 entrepreneurs and enterprises staff filled the questionnaire.

The study revealed that according to the respondent’s perceptions distributed leadership is practiced in their

enterprise at a superficial level, according to the 3 levels presented by empirical research. There exists a

“neutral” perception about the challenges faced by the enterprise while applying distributed leadership, which

shows that the respondents do not have a clear idea about the challenges that their enterprise has to face while

applying distributed leadership. Nevertheless, they listed “the lack of the shared responsibility amongst the

staff”, as one challenge that their enterprise faces mostly, while applying the distributed leadership. According

to the respondents, it is important to encourage staff to participate in the decision making, ensure well-built

relations among entrepreneurs and the staff and create strong collegial relationships among staff. This could

contribute to the success of the MSE-s

1 Introduction

Distributed leadership studies have been conducted

mostly in the field of education and have examined

school contexts, however, it seems that distributed

leadership can be applied to enterprises of different

sizes.

This paper examines the application of the

distributed leadership to micro and small enterprises

(MSE-s) in Kosovo. Particularly the article aims to

distributed leadership, the challenges of this

application and the conditions that permit the

improvement of enterprises leadership. In Kosovo

micro and small enterprises make up the majority of

companies operating in the market and serve as the

main source of employment for the Kosovo

population. Thus, examining the leadership issues of

these ventures would serve above all to their

effectiveness and success.

“The new work of educational leaders”, [1], states

that leadership as a process whereby an individual

influences a group of individuals to achieve a

common goal in the organization.

Despite the wide range of leadership typologies, the

two main types of leadership discussed in the recent

academic literature are the traditional leadership and

the distributed leadership. Traditional leadership is

about vertical top-down management, while

distributed leadership is a more democratic one. It is

According to Elmore, [4], when distributed

leadership is implemented in an organization, it

enables an increase of employees' trust that the

company works honestly and this affects the

increase of the company's possibility for progress.

The author stressed that distributed leadership gives

importance to the communication and the

collaboration between members of the company and

to the learning from each other.

According to Harris, [5], there are different strategic

third level of the distributed leadership, deep

distributed leadership, where the leadership

becomes the culture of the organization.

[6], listed: (a) the distance, (b) the culture (the top

down model of leadership), (c) the enterprise

structure.

Summarizing the findings of some authors,

including Harris’s ideas, Dambrauskienė. [7], shows

the characteristics of distributed leadership, as

following: (a) the community members’

participation in the organization’s performance, (b)

communication and collaboration, (c)

teaching/learning from each other, (d) support for

and (f) the distribution of power and activity among

other employees of the organization. These features

can be also considered as conditions that permit the

improvement of the MSE-s leadership and transform

it into a distributive leadership.

As North, [8], concludes, in an organization, where

seen as very effective in the field of small and

medium enterprises (SME-s) management as well,

[9]. Some specifics that make small and medium

enterprises, including micro enterprises as well, as

suitable for the implementation of the distributed

leadership are: the management of the firm is

independent and usually the managers are the owner

of the enterprise; capital is usually owned by an

individual or a small group of individuals, the region

of extension is mainly small; the size of the

involved in several roles, such as the role of

salesman, the role of specialist in public relations,

the role of accountant, manager, etc. As Kempser,

[11], argues, when the business grows, the

entrepreneur begins to position himself in the role of

leader. Throughout the life cycle of a business, the

leadership style in the business also changes, [12].

According to Ensley, [13], in the small business

start-up phase, vertical leadership takes on a special

importance, because it requires the entrepreneur to

entrepreneur is engaged in the team, [14]

According to Mendy and Harrison (2021) the shared

approach to leadership can help organizations,

especially resource-constrained ones like SMEs, to

resolve crisis situations similar to those created by

the recent COVID-19 pandemic, [15] .

Having in mind the three main challenges of

applying the distributed leadership, presented by

Harris, [4], mentioned in the previous session of this

paper: the distance, the culture and the

and small companies, since the distance between

employees, as well as between the entrepreneur and

the employees is small, the possibility of applying

distributed leadership is higher, so, this challenge is

expected to be easily overcome .

According to Harris, [16], the traditional culture of

top-down leadership is another challenge that needs

division, it is very likely that the barrier created by

the complex organizational structure in big

enterprises will not be an important challenge in the

case of micro and small companies, [15]

provided by Dambrauskienė, [16], which serve as

conditions for improve the implementation of

distributed leadership in the MSE in the Kosovo

context.

In summary the construction of the research model

is presented as follows. Three questions that drove

the research are:

- Research question nr 1. How are presented

the perceptions held by the entrepreneur and

Research question nr 2: How are presented the

challenges dealing with

implementation of distributed leadership in the MSE

In summary the construction of the research model

challenges dealing with distributed leadership in

- Research question nr 3. How are presented the

perceptions about the conditions that permit the

leadership in micro and small businesses?

perceptions about the conditions that permit the

was 294 respondents. For more information see

Table 1. The sample calculation

years and 44 respondents (15 %) had from 10-14

years of experience. For more information see table

5.

Table 5. Years of experience within the

entrepreneurship

distributed leadership in their entrepreneurship?

According to the respondents’ perceptions,

distributed leadership is applied in the businesses

where they work. The mean of the means for the 5

items of the variable is 3.64 (that corresponds to the

level “agree”) and the item that has the higher mean

(3.81) is “Distributed leadership is practiced in our

enterprise”. However, it seems that in the explored

enterprises, according to the respondents’ response

there exists a distributed leadership in a superficial

According to Research question nr 2. How are

presented the challenges dealing with distributed

leadership in micro and small businesses?

category “neutral”), which shows that the

respondents do not have a clear idea about the

challenges that their enterprise has to face when

applying distributed leadership. Nevertheless, they

5 Conclusion and Recommendation

The study revealed that according to the

(the mean of the means for the 8 challenges listed

in the questionnaire is 3.42), which shows that the

respondents do not have a clear idea about the

challenges that their enterprise has to face while

apply distributed leadership. Nevertheless, they

listed “the lack of the shared responsibility amongst

the staff” (mean 3.59, level “agree”) as one

challenge that their enterprise faces mostly, while

applying the distributed leadership.

With the aim to improve the applying of the

4.22) and create strong collegial relationship among

staff (mean 4.22).

Considering these findings, it is important to raise

the awareness of the entrepreneurs and the staff,

through training and coaching, to the importance of

the distributed leadership application, instead of the

traditional one in their enterprises. This would

contribute to increasing the effectiveness and

success of the MSE-s in the Kosovo context.