Leadership remains one of the most important topics across a range of fields because studies continuously demonstrate that the success and well-being of any institution or society depend on the functionality, effectiveness, and promotion of leaders and leadership.
Today, leadership is not synonymous with authority. The role of other individuals within an organization now contribute to institutional operations and change. Leadership has expanded to be considered a process that involves groups and is not executed only by individuals; such as team-based, shared and distributed leadership. Team and shared models identify and examine the role of individuals outside authority in leadership and consider leadership a collective process that is working to create change.
The efficacy of involving multiple individuals outside positions of authority and working in collectives keep emerging as related to important leadership outcomes such as problem solving, change, innovation and strategic decision making in organizations and nations throughout the world.
Grassroots leaders are individuals who do not have formal positions of authority, are operating from the bottom up, and are interested in and pursue organizational changes that often challenge the status quo of the institution. Grassroots leadership is defined in social movement literature as the stimulation of social change or the challenge of the status quo by those who lack formal authority, delegated power or "institutionalized methods for doing so." Grassroots leadership is local and community based, typically with little visibility.
Grassroots leaders are typically volunteers and not hired or employed to lead efforts. They are distinctive from those in positions of authority who tend to have a structure in place to enact leadership through rewards, establishing formal positions and responsibilities, and delegating authority. Grassroots leaders typically have to create their own structure, network and support systems.
Grassroots Leadership is not necessarily Shared Leadership
Shared leadership has been an undercurrent in the leadership literature over the centuries. For example, the servant leadership model has been popular from time to time.
Almost all shared leadership studies emphasize the way that those without positions of authority can be included in a leadership process. Shared leadership models stem from the perspective of and typically reinforce the interests of management. Shared leadership is typically connected to and part of traditional institutional processes. Shared leadership models assume a connection between top-down and bottom-up leadership. While grassroots leadership does not preclude such a connection, it does not view it as inherent or prevalent. Grassroots efforts may be independent of top-down efforts and that convergence is limited.
Grassroots leaders report that strategy and tactics were on the forefront of minds and pivotal to creating change from the bottom up. Strategy is defined as a set of principles that outline an overall approach while tactics are specific methods or techniques to achieve a specific objective or goal on the way to creating change. Yet, while most successful grassroots leaders use strategy, many are not conscious or aware that they are using a strategy.
Source: Adrianna Kezar: Enhancing Campus Capacity for Leadership: An Examination of Grassroots Leaders in Higher Education