The research and documentation component is a multidisciplinary effort to develop new insights about leadership. The researchers draw on new leadership theories that pay attention to the role of meaning-making as well as to the interconnections between leaders and communities. In addition, they draw from theories on social change ranging from social movements and collective action theory to accounts of activism and community organizing, as well as multicultural insights coming from scholars concerned with the role of social change leadership within ethnic and feminist communities. They also draw on a growing sector of the management literature that views leadership as a collective achievement among communities pursuing shared purposes. Consistent with these approaches, the researchers give attention to shared leadership and the collective meaning-making processes that shape the experience of leadership, step back and look not at the behavior of individuals but at the tasks groups face as they try to take action; and look for the way leadership happens in places that are not usually included in studies about leadership.