Complexity Leadership and Followership: Changed Leadership in a Changed World

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Uhl-Bien
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill Brantley

<p>Based on an analysis of 272 peer-reviewed articles on project management communication, the authors found that only four percent of the articles advanced project management communication toward a better contemporary understanding of the complexity of communication. The authors posit that project management communication research needs a new research agenda based on complex responsive processes of relating. The new research agenda proposal comprises three major areas of study: emotional intelligence; communication complexity theories; and complexity leadership. Adopting the new project management communication research agenda will help establish more effective communication tools and methods for project management practitioners while providing new research opportunities for communication scholars.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Adobor ◽  
William Phanuel Kofi Darbi ◽  
Obi Berko O. Damoah

PurposeThe purpose of this conceptual paper is to explore the role of strategic leadership under conditions of uncertainty and unpredictability. The authors argue that highly improbable, but high-impact events require the upper echelons of management, traditionally the custodians of strategy formulation to offer a new kind of strategic leadership focused on new mindsets, organizational capabilities, more in tune with high uncertainty and unpredictability.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on strategic leadership, and complexity leadership theory, the authors review the literature and present a conceptual framework for exploring the nature of strategic leadership under uncertainty. The authors conceptualize organizations as complex adaptive systems and discuss the imperatives for developing new mental models for emergent leadership.FindingsStrategic leaders have a key role to play in preparing their organizations for episodic disruptions. These include developing their adaptive capabilities and building resilient organizations to ensure their organizations cannot only bounce back after a disruption but have the capacity for transformation to new fitness levels when necessary. Strategic leaders must engage with complexity leadership by seeing their organizations as complex adaptive systems, reconfigure their leadership approaches and organizations to build strategic adaptive capability.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a conceptual paper and the authors cannot make any claims of causality.Practical implicationsOrganizational leaders need to reconfigure their mental models and leadership approaches to reflect the new normal of uncertainty and unpredictability. Developing the strategic adaptive capability of organizations should prepare them for dealing with high impact events. To assure business continuity in the face of disruptions requires building flexible, adaptable business models.Originality/valueThe paper focuses on how managers can offer strategic leadership for a new normal that challenges some of our most cherished leadership and strategic management paradigms. The authors explore the new mental models and leadership models in an era of great uncertainty.


Author(s):  
Leanne Gibbs ◽  
Frances Press ◽  
Sandie Wong

Author(s):  
Tiina K. O. Rodrigue

In information technology security as scored by management budget, the author examines information technology (IT) security in the context of organizational management, business, complexity leadership theories, and current IT security scholarship. Based on well-known organizational power and politics theory as well as accounting, budget, and management literature, the chapter examines what is known about the impact of power and politics on IT security and the importance of budgetary gamesmanship as illustrated by understanding that the budget as a game, the politics of allocation within an organization, the influence of budgetary bias and how it shapes what CISOs must understand and master, the unfunded mandate impediment through which each the organization picks winners and losers under the auspices of “doing more with less.” The author suggests a future framework for IT security-management-budget review that includes measures that track expenditure versus the power alignment and how to gauge the net effect on an organization's information-technology security posture.


2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 187-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Kennedy ◽  
Marcjanna M. Augustyn

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine stakeholder power and engagement within an increasingly competitive English seaside resort setting. It aims to adopt a structuralist and functionalist perspective and develop an enabling conceptualisation of power that incorporates structural and agency components in stakeholders’ reasons for engaging. Based on the conceptual interdependencies between stakeholder power and engagement, this study aims to present the limitations of previous studies on destination leadership in this area, and this paper also seeks to discuss implications for destination leadership. Design/methodology/approach As a qualitative and exploratory study, mixed-method research was adopted using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with destination stakeholders from a prominent tourism action group. The primary research was carried out in an English seaside resort between 2010 and 2011. Data are used to draw a stakeholder map as a visual tool. Findings Eight elements of enabling power are confirmed to be of importance in identifying stakeholder power and engagement. The level of power varies depending on stakeholders’ position within a network. These findings direct attention towards adopting a complexity leadership approach in an increasingly competitive destination environment. Research limitations/implications The paper focuses on an English seaside resort, although results can be transferred to other similar-sized destinations where the focus is on local tourism policy development. Originality/value The paper provides an innovative conceptualisation of power in stakeholder theory by drawing primarily on a sociological understanding of power as an enabler and not as an inhibitor for development, leadership and change in seaside resorts. This paper uses leadership theories to interpret data and infer implications for destination leadership.


2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (9/10) ◽  
pp. 1029-1039
Author(s):  
Jeffrey R. Moore ◽  
Everon C. Maxey ◽  
Alina M. Waite ◽  
Joseph D. Wendover

PurposeBuilding on previous research that focused on Walgreens inclusive managers in South Carolina and Georgia, we studied leadership practices in Connecticut where effective and inclusive teams are developed.Design/methodology/approachUsing the case study approach, interviews with over 90% of the managers in a Walgreens distribution center where over a third of its workforce of 500 employees has a disability were conducted.FindingsCreating an inclusive workplace dramatically altered the culture of the distribution center. Our findings highlighted how managers transitioned from a telling and demanding autocratic style with a focus on production numbers to an inclusive management leadership style with a focus on investing in people and balancing teams. Additional discoveries include the role of complexity leadership concepts as essential to inclusive management attributes. Our findings point to a new driver in inclusive organizations: resolving employee performance and attitude issues.Originality/valueWith 200 disabled employees in the distribution center, managers and employees applied complexity leadership, enabling adaptive behaviors that helped form relationships focused on shared decision-making and problem solving. Managers showed mindfulness and empathy in building authentic relationships. Employee openness and the creation of safe attachments allowed leaders to gain greater engagement with employees, higher adaptability, innovation and resiliency. Inclusion was perceived as a benefit to managers as well as to employees, changing the organizational culture toward authentic relationships while exceeding performance metrics.


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