Issues, responsibilities and identities: A distributed leadership perspective on biotechnology R&D management

The aim of the research reported here is to contribute to the ongoing development of R&D project leadership studies by applying a distributed leadership perspective in the analysis of a product development project in a small biotechnology venture. A distributed leadership perspective implies that leadership is studied as a process of social interaction, involving several individuals who continuously construct leadership activities together. From a case study of a bio-tech venture, we conclude that leadership work in R&D projects implies construction of issues, responsibilities and identities. That is, what people do - seen from this perspective - when performing leadership activities in this project is that they gradually move the project and the organization forward by processing issues, resolving ambiguities concerning responsibility, and develop their understandings on the identity bases involved.