Leadership style as an enabler of organizational complex functioning ΠEmergence: Complexity and Organization

The postmodern organization has a design paradox in which leaders are concerned with efficiency and control as well as complex functioning. Traditional leadership theory has limited applicability to postmodern organizations as it is mainly focused on efficiency and control. As a result, a new theory of leadership that recognizes the design paradox has been proposed: complexity leadership theory. This theory conceptualizes the integration of formal leadership roles with complex functioning. Our particular focus is on leadership style and its effect as an enabler of complex functioning. We introduce dynamic network analysis, a new methodology for modeling and analyzing organizations as complex adaptive networks. Dynamic network analysis is a methodology that quantifies complexity leadership theory. Data was collected from a real-world network organization and dynamic network analysis used to explore the effects of leadership style as an enabler of complex functioning. Results and implications are discussed in relation to leadership theory and practice.