Complexity Leadership: The First Two Decades

Abstract

Complexity leadership, complex adaptive leadership, and adaptive leadership theories are related but separate streams of leadership research dating back four decades. This article reviews the first two decades. The research team searched academic literature within the business discipline for journal articles related to complex adaptive leadership, complexity leadership, and adaptive leadership, resulting in a sample of 778 articles. The researchers used multiple methods to analyze the articles, eventually conducting deductive analysis on a subset of nine articles published between 1982-2002.

Analysis from the sample revealed frustration by some leadership scholars over the ability of leadership theory to address practical leadership problems. Therefore, scholars called for and began to develop novel approaches beyond concepts of leader-follower influence. Scholars turned their attention to understanding the role of leadership within VUCA contexts. They began to conceive of organizations as open systems and to describe characteristics that leaders would need to be successful in complex adaptive systems. These early attempts set the stage for scholars to apply complexity theory to the study of leadership.