COMPLEXITY LEADERSHIP
Many previous models of leadership have been
designed to accommodate more traditional hierarchical structures of organizations. To the
degree that organizations are hierarchical, so
too are leadership models (Uhl-Bien et al.
2007). Yet, there has been a growing sense of
tension in the leadership literature that models
of leadership that were designed for the
past century may not fully capture the leadership
dynamic of organizations operating in today’s
knowledge-driven economy (Lichtenstein
et al. 2007). Applying the concepts of complexity
theory to the study of leadership has
resulted in what has been referred to as complexity
leadership (Uhl-Bien & Marion 2008).
Based on this framework, leadership is viewed as
an interactive system of dynamic, unpredictable
agents that interact with each other in complex
feedback networks, which can then produce
adaptive outcomes such as knowledge dissemination,
learning, innovation, and further
adaptation to change (Uhl-Bien et al. 2007).
According to complex systems leadership theory,
“leadership can be enacted through any
interaction in an organization ... leadership is
an emergent phenomenon within complex systems”
(Hazy et al. 2007, p. 2).
In line with leadership fitting the needs of
the situation or challenges in which it operates,
complexity leadership posits that to achieve optimal
performance, organizations cannot be designed
with simple, rationalized structures that
underestimate the complexity of the context
in which the organization must function and
adapt (Uhl-Bien et al. 2007). Simply viewing
the leader and follower in a simple exchange
process won’t fly in terms of explaining the full
dynamics of leadership.