Shared leadership and executive director retention in Kootenay-Boundary community social services organizations
Date
2025
Authors
Smith, Hannah
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Abstract
The impact of nonprofit executive turnover cannot be understated (McKee & Froelich, 2016). For several decades now, there has been a focus on the benefits of a shared leadership approach – its impressive ability to bolster team performance and creativity and improve team dynamics (Wu et al., 2020). This research turns its attention toward shared leadership’s applications in executive retention in the Community Services Organizations' (CSO) sphere, specifically within Kootenay Boundary Community Services Cooperative (Koop) member agencies. Understanding the role shared leadership and its contributing factors play in local CSO executive retention is crucial in stabilizing their futures and the communities they serve. Given the importance of strong executive leadership, gaining a deeper awareness of the factors that support ED retention regionally will enable the Koop to make informed decisions on its capacity-building activities. Most significantly, it will contribute to local CSO ED retention strategies, bolstering their organizational sustainability as they face an era of change with a strapped labour market and increased demand for services.
The research aimed to investigate a leadership model within CSOs that is more compatible with executive retention. It sought to address the research problem of high executive turnover, with a limited labour pool of candidates for the most critical organizational role. The guiding research questions were, “Does shared leadership provide a protective effect in CSO executive director retention?” and “What influence do the various shared leadership constructs have?”
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Keywords
shared leadership, executive director, retention, nonprofit, social services, community, British Columbia, Kootenays + Boundary, Canada, perceived organizational support, team heterogeneity, remuneration, trust, mission motivation, vision, voice, attrition