A Study of Leadership Strategy for Creative Collaboration Within a Digital Agency

Abstract

This study seeks to understand the leadership strategies that are necessary to implement and maintain collaborative, cross-disciplinary efforts within an integrated marketing communications (IMC) agency. The focus of the research is on leadership behavior that impacts organizational interaction, motivation, and communication with diverse, interdisciplinary teams to achieve collaborative outcomes within a full-service, digital marketing agency. This qualitative case study aims to advance literature in the area of leadership best practice concepts with the implementation of IMC. The methods used in the study included one-on-one interviews, field observations, and a collaborative leadership self-assessment questionnaire. The research indicates that collaborative effort is greatly impacted by leadership interaction, communication, and motivation and it is related to the type of work culture and environment that leaders work to create within the organization. Ideally achieving a creative collaborative effort on each project seems optimal, but in reality is seldom the norm or even the most effective manner in which to complete client requests. Rather than thinking of creative collaboration in terms of a formal process, the results suggest that collaboration should be an overall theme that resonates within the culture of the agency. Leadership should work to develop a work environment, communication system, policies, procedures, and activities that foster collaborative thinking and behavior naturally.