Balanced Leadership Case Study

This case study discusses the application of balanced leadership in Transport for New South Wales in Australia (Transport). It reports on three aspects of balanced leadership in Transport: how decisions are made regarding projects and programs; how leadership shifts between the vertical leader (project or program manager) and horizontal leader (subject matter experts in teams); and elements of socio-cognitive space that support the transition between vertical and horizontal leadership. The predominant methodology used to deliver programs in Transport was found to be agile, and all the programs delivered from the unit where the interviewees were located were aimed at supporting the creation of value from big data. The unit managing programs in this organization was not fully involved in implementing projects in the programs, creating an additional level of leadership where some tasks were also undertaken by project team members in a vendor’s organization.