Leaders are often called upon to make sense out of complicated situations and give direction to others, and the situations have increased in both number and complexity. A solution to this problem has been identified in sharing leadership and engaging the potential of entire organizations. Therefore the purpose of this literature review is to map and identify interesting areas about shared leadership. Investigating if shared leadership can help organisations become more efficient in a world of growing complexity. Focusing on why organisational actors should consider a shared leadership approach. Critically examine the potential outcome from shared leadership and how an organisation could move towards adopting a shared leadership approach, including steps, conditions and actions that would be required. Literature about shared leadership and similar concepts has increased extensively, causing dissension in the area. Aiming to explore, understand and express what the literature says about shared leadership we adopted the systems view with an inductive and qualitative approach. Realising that shared leadership most commonly is practiced and studied in teams we adopted this scope and went deeper into the social process and conditions for creating shared leadership in teams. Shared leadership was found to solve demands for increased knowledge, skill and ability among modern leaders. Preferably implemented successively by vertical leaders into cross-functional teams conducting knowledge work. Tasks to simple or time to urgent however makes shared leadership ineffective, while misaligned perceptions and purposes between team members might diminish trust and neglect shared leadership. This review then makes valuable implications for future research, suggesting deepened empirical research in the implication of shared leadership.

La presente investigación tiene el propósito de explicar si el liderazgo vertical y el liderazgo compartido coexisten en la empresa corporativa en la actualidad, puesto que, de acuerdo al contexto, puede predominar uno u otro liderazgo en el proceso de toma de decisiones. Para ello, se llevó a cabo un estudio cualitativo de treinta artículos científicos para analizar y diferenciar las posturas de los autores que han estudiado la evolución del liderazgo según el crecimiento de las organizaciones. El desarrollo de la investigación, principalmente comprende: la evolución y conceptualización de los liderazgos vertical y compartido; y el grado de su aplicación en las organizaciones según los enfoques mas relevantes. El tema del liderazgo compartido adquirió mayor importancia en los últimos veinte años, a raíz del cambio en las formas de conducción y gestión de las empresas. Tradicionalmente, el liderazgo vertical se define como un liderazgo jerárquico de arriba hacia abajo, donde el líder formal conduce al equipo. A diferencia de este, el liderazgo compartido surge entre los miembros del equipo, los cuales interiorizan la misión y visión de la organización y se apoyan para lograr el propósito común. Este liderazgo se consolida con la formación de organizaciones más horizontales. A partir de la investigación, se concluye que el uso del liderazgo vertical permite que el líder formal defina los objetivos de la organización y el diseño del equipo. Por su parte, el liderazgo compartido impulsa al equipo en el diseño de las estrategias, lo que le otorga una voz activa dentro de la toma de decisiones. Como una limitación a la presente investigación, no se ha explicado el desarrollo del liderazgo en las empresas de la región de Sudamérica, ya que, en la última década, están expandiéndose grupos empresariales locales hacia otros continentes. Así mismo, podría iniciarse estudios de otros tipos de liderazgo nacientes en esta región. La investigación tiene implicancias para las empresas actuales, puesto que va a contribuir en el conocimiento sobre los principales aspectos del liderazgo compartido y vertical. Asimismo, va a aportar en el análisis para la aplicación del tipo de liderazgo más conveniente de acuerdo al contexto y la futura implementación con el objeto de resultados sostenibles. / The present research aims to explain whether vertical leadership and shared leadership coexist in the corporate company today, since, according to the context, one or the other leadership may predominate in the decision-making process. To this end, a qualitative study of thirty scientific articles was carried out to analyze and differentiate the positions of the authors who have studied the evolution of leadership according to the growth of organizations. The development of the research mainly includes: the evolution and conceptualization of vertical and shared leadership; and the degree of its application in organizations according to the most relevant approaches. The issue of shared leadership has acquired greater importance in the last twenty years, as a result of the change in the ways of conducting and managing companies. Traditionally, vertical leadership is defined as top-down hierarchical leadership, where the formal leader leads the team. Unlike this, shared leadership arises among team members, who internalize the mission and vision of the organization and support each other to achieve the common purpose. This leadership is consolidated with the formation of more horizontal organizations. The research concludes that the use of vertical leadership allows the formal leader to define the goals of the organization and team design; and then shared leadership drives the team in the design of strategies by giving it an active voice in decision-making. As a limitation to this research, the development of leadership in companies in the South American region has not been explained, since in the last decade local business groups are expanding to other continents. Likewise, studies of other types of emerging leadership in this region could also be initiated. The research has implications for current companies, since it will contribute to the knowledge about the main aspects of shared and vertical leadership, as well as the analysis for the application of the most suitable type of leadership in its context and its future implementation with the object of sustainable results. / Trabajo de Suficiencia Profesional