Collaborative Leadership

The Leadership Quarterly 21 (2010) 211–230

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The Leadership Quarterly j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / l e a q u a

Integrative leadership and the creation and maintenance of cross-sector collaborations
Barbara C. Crosby ⁎, John M. Bryson
Center for Integrative Leadership and Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota

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a b s t r a c t
This article presents a theoretical framework for understanding integrative leadership and the creation and maintenance of cross-sector collaborations that create public value. We define integrative leadership as bringing diverse groups and organizations together in semipermanent ways — and typically across sector boundaries — to remedy complex public problems and achieve the common good. Our framework highlights in particular the leadership roles and activities of collaboration sponsors and champions. The framework is illustrated with examples from the development of MetroGIS, a geographic information system that promotes better public problem-solving in the Minneapolis–St. Paul region of the US. A set of propositions is offered to guide further research and to prompt reflective practice. © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Integrative leadership Cross-sector collaboration Collaborative leadership Public value Public leadership

Many major public problems or challenges — such as global warming, HIV/AIDS, economic development, poverty, and homelessness — can be addressed effectively only if many organizations collaborate. Collaborators would include governments certainly, but often must include businesses, nonprofit organizations, foundations, higher education institutions, and community groups as well. Leaders and managers in government organizations thus face the need to inspire, mobilize, and sustain their own agencies, but also to engage numerous other partners

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