THE ART OF PARTICIPATORY LEADERSHIP: A TOOL FOR SOCIAL AND ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE

This paper describes the art of participatory leadership as a response to management challenges in the 21st century. Fostering collective wisdom and collaborative action, it is an essential tool for social and organisational development during times of uncertainty. Within descriptive mode of analysis, this study investigates how various methodologies used in participatory leadership can help people to work together for change, collaborate in interdisciplinary teams, transcend old paradigms, and create radically more effective, sustainable and creative outcomes in groups. Reporting from various examples, the study focuses on how and why the practice of opening the collective intelligence in organizations and communities may serve as a central driving force for unleashing the creativity as well as supporting and coordinating innovative and sustainable solutions. Data on participatory leadership practices is collected using the following two types of sources: official documentation provided in relevant online resources, and the information from the global community of participative leadership practitioners called Art of Hosting (AoH). The goal of the study is to reveal how the usage of participatory leadership methodology helps finding new solutions for the common good and by thus represents a valuable tool for successful organizational and communal development and change.