Holding the Gap Open: How Advisory Co-Leadership Sustains Under-Resourced Priorities

Organizations may raise priorities such as diversity, equity, inclusion without proportional resources. This study of military-civilian dyads advancing culture change reveals that co-leaders don't resolve the gap. Instead, they develop complementary coping patterns: civilians absorb logistical and emotional weight, while military members practice disciplined containment. Together, they create a working equilibrium that allows the organization to function. Yet this stability carries a quieter cost: the tensions persist, indefinitely absorbed but never resolved.

Siloed Together? Bridging the Fragmented Worlds of Co-Leadership in Theory and Practice - in collaboration with Dr. Mariam Hussein

Co-leadership brings two leaders into shared authority, but the field has been split into isolated conversations. This piece cuts through the fragmentation, mapping the real patterns beneath how pairs share power—how they balance equality, hold unity, manage the process, and earn legitimacy. The result is a sharper, more integrated picture of what makes co-leadership work — and where it breaks — to push the field toward clearer doctrine and stronger practice.

When Fears of Exclusion Meet Fears of Engulfment: How Hybrid Medical Co-Directors Modulate Role Distance. 

Hybrids operate on the seam between groups that rarely meet, a position charged with tension and constant recalibration of distance. This study shows how senior physician-managers manage that tension by constructing vertical distance, assigning roles, and using their co-leader to fine-tune proximity through subtle, often invisible practices that create a psychological “elsewhere” from which they can lead. Alongside the well-known fears of exclusion or co-optation, the findings surface a quieter threat: the fear of being engulfed by medicine itself.

Gibeau, E. (2026) Hiding in plain sight: Co-Leadership in the Military. In press at Leadership & Organization Development Journal.

Gibeau, E. (2026). A Typology of Senior Enlisted Leadership Roles. Accepted in Senior Enlisted Leadership - Volume 1.

Gibeau, E. & Hussein, M. (2026). Understanding Military-Civilian Co-Leadership in Defence Advisory Groups: What Works, What Enables It, and What Breaks Down. Department of National Defence (DND).

Gibeau, E. and Hussein, M. (2025). Leading In and Around Triads in the Canadian Forces Health Services: Challenges and Enabling Factors. In press at Canadian Military Journal.

Gibeau, E. (2025). Implementing Co-Leadership in Healthcare Organizations: Expanding and Constricting New Senior Management Roles for Physicians. Journal of Health Organization and Management, 1-17.

Gibeau, E. (2025). Insight from Extreme Contexts: Co-Leadership’s Stability Paradox. In press at Leadership in Health Services.

Gibeau, E., & Gril, E. (2025). Les cinq défis de la cogestion. Revue Gestion, 502(2), 78-81.

Gibeau, E. & Hussain, M. (2025). Leading In and Around Triads in the Canadian Armed Forces Health Services: A Practical Report. Department of National Defence (DND).

Fortin, A.-H., Gibeau, E. & Rondeau, A., Lyonnais-Lafond (2025, 28 février) Comprendre et déployer la cogestion médico-administrative - Guide interactif à l'usage des acteurs du réseau de la santé et des services sociaux, Pôle santé HEC Montréal, https://view.genially.com/655cf8218da61e00110bc9f7

Gibeau, É. (2024). From Hierarchical to Matrix Structure: Tensions in Negotiating Shared Leadership Configurations. International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, 27(1), 14-34.

Gibeau, É., Langley, A., Denis, J-L, & van Schendel, N. (2020). Bridging Competing Demands Through Co-leadership? Potential and Limitations. Human Relations. 73(4), 464-489.

Gibeau, E., Reid., W. & Langley, A. (2016). Co-Leadership: Contexts, Configurations and Conditions. In Storey, J., Hartley, J., Denis, J., Hart, P. & Ulrich, D. (Eds.), Routledge Companion to Leadership. New York: Routledge.

Alvehus, J., Empson, L., Hinings, B., Barbulescu, R., Gardner, H., Gibeau, E., King, M. & Langley, A. (2016). Leading Professionals: Plurality, Process and Power. Academy of Management (AOM), Anaheim, Proceedings.

Gibeau, E., Langley, A., Denis, J., Pomey, M. & Van Schendel, N. (2014). When Physicians Become Managers. Revue Gestion, 39(3), 63-73.

Langley, A., Van Schendel, N., Gibeau, E., Denis, J. & Pomey, M. (2014). Toward New Models of Medical Leadership in Health Care Systems – Final Report. Montreal: Association québécoise des établissements de santé et services sociaux (AQESSS).

Denis, J., Gibeau, E., Langley, A., Pomey, M. & Van Schendel, N. (2012). Toward New Models of Medical Leadership in Health Care Systems – Literature Review. Montreal: Association québécoise des établissements de santé et services sociaux (AQESSS).