Diffused leadership

Health Management Glossary

Workforce and Leadership

Definition. Diffused leadership is an approach that recognises leadership as spread across multiple people, teams and organisational levels rather than concentrated in a single position.

Explanation

An introductory review on The Health Topics traces the concept’s roots in distributed, shared and collective leadership and discusses its implications for hospitals, where clinical and managerial authority are already divided (Kurutkan, 2026).

Its benefits depend on clear accountability; without it, diffused leadership can blur responsibility.

Related concepts

Distributed leadership Transformational leadership Organizational culture Change management

Read on The Health Topics

• https://healthtopic.org/topics/diffused-leadership-an-introduction-101/

References

Kurutkan, M. N. (2026). Diffused leadership: An introduction (101) [Technical report]. The Health Topics. https://healthtopic.org/topics/diffused-leadership-an-introduction-101/

Cite this entry: Kurutkan, M. N. (2026). Diffused leadership. In The Health Topics glossary. https://healthtopic.org/glossary/diffused-leadership/

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