Toward a Theory of Emergent Leadership for Collaborative Information Systems Development among Social Enterprises

Many social enterprises (SEs) are adopting collaborative strategies to overcome fragmentation and duplication in the social sector to effectively address the world’s social needs (i.e. hunger, poverty, healthcare, education). SEs are increasingly utilizing IT to support collaboration. However, historically SEs have been slow to integrate IT into their organizations so little is known about information systems design (ISD) in SEs; even less at the collaborative level. Effective leadership in ISD is important to realizing desired outcomes. Current leadership theories do not translate easily to the SE context. We explore the collective leadership, emerging from the collaborative ISD process itself, as being relevant to SE contexts. We apply the neohumanist philosophy, and incorporate Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action, to develop a theory of leadership in collaborative SE ISD, in which leadership emerges from communicative actions in the ISD process. We offer a framework for leadership in collaborative ISD in social sector collaboration.

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