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Health care is a complex and changing system in which collaboration between a diversity of stakeholders exists. Examples of stakeholder collaborations range from the patient-centered work of an interprofessional team, to collaborations among different departments within a health care organization, to intersectoral collaborations between health care organizations and community-based organizations. Multistakeholder collaborations are especially relevant to nurses working in ambulatory care in which interprofessional and intersectoral work is key to effective patient outcomes as well as organizational success. Porter-O'Grady and Malloch (2011) suggest a more adaptive collabora- ⅛ tive approach to leadership than the vertically oriented, highly structured leadership of the 20th century might be needed in today's health care environment. This column will look at collaborative leadership as an effective approach for ambulatory care nurses at all levels of practice and across settings.
Collaborative leadership is a style of distributed or nonhierarchical leadership which Oxford Leadership (2016) describes, "as grounded in the belief that all of us together can be smarter, more creative, and more competent than any of us alone" (p. 3). It can be a style of leadership in which the role of leader shifts among stakeholder members depending upon circumstances and expertise. Collaborative leadership can also be a style of leadership in which there is an individual directing a collaborative effort among a number of stakeholders (Rabinowitz, 2018.). This style of leadership is particularly helpful when issues that need to be addressed are complex enough to require multiple stakeholders in order to adequately reach a solution. Chrislip and Larson (1994) explored collaborative leadership extensively, noting the ways in which community civic leaders across the U.S. dealt with complex issues across sectors. Their research has been used to great effect in business, education, and community coalitions, as well as community-based health and human services organizations (Rabinowitz, 2018).
Lawrence (2017) suggests, "collaborative leadership is characterized by shared vision and values, interdependence and shared responsibility, mutual...