A study of leadership practices in an agile development team: an approach based on power metaphors
Keywords:
Leadership, agilité, transformation numérique, métaphores du pouvoir, exercice du pouvoirAbstract
Leadership plays a major role in ensuring effective teamwork within agile development projects.
However, team leadership practices are still under-researched, and issues of power are often overlooked.
Yet the literature on agility emphasizes a number of approaches that break with the conventional
pattern of a leader directing team members. The aim of this research is therefore to propose an analysis
of leadership practices in agile development teams, highlighting power phenomena. The research is
based on an in-depth case study of a Scrum team, combining targeted semi-structured interviews and
observation, and on the use of a metaphorical lens for analysis. The analysis, which is structured around
four metaphors (rhizome, panoptic, system and hero), deepens our understanding of power relations in
agile development teams. The results show a combination of forms of power that contribute to the success
of agile leadership. They provide a more nuanced view than the idealized image of empowerment and
self-organizing teams promoted in agile literature.
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