In 2003, the 'education reform for knowledge economy' policy introduced the notion of distributed leadership into Jordanian public schools. Policy development, delivery and professional learning were funded and undertaken with assistance from international partners alongside the Jordanian Ministry of Education. The policy is now substantive. Distributed leadership's implicit western values of greater democracy, trust, empowerment and shared leadership responsibilities were delivered into a schooling system where traditional leadership roles and expectations derived from sheikhocratic customs are the norms. This article interrogates the paradox of distributed leadership in the context of time-honoured sheikhocratic practices from the perceptions and experiences of public school principals. Since perceptions about policy and implicit policy values are culturally mediated, it examines how the principles underpinning distributed leadership are interpreted through the lens of the Jordanian local culture as it is experienced in schools. The findings of this grounded theory study highlight incompatibilities between principals' understandings of distributed leadership and those implicit in western cultures. This imported policy reform program filtered through host culture judgments produced different policy outcomes than those anticipated by policymakers.