A Balancing Act of Leadership: The Practice of Shaping the Direction of a Project Portfolio

Abstract

This article explores the practice of shaping the project portfolio direction through the lens of leadership. Focusing on a public setting, it uncovers three interrelated activities: developing ownership, networking, and de-personalizing. These activities can be accomplished through continuous balancing of substantive–symbolic and visible–subtle acts, institutional structures and their improvisations, and hierarchical and distributed leadership. The article contributes to (1) the project portfolio management literature by offering the concept of hybrid leadership and insights into the alignment of diverse stakeholder interests and worldviews, and (2) to the leadership literature by critiquing the leadership-as-practice movement and advancing explanations of the interplay between hierarchical and distributed leadership.