Chapter 5: Complex Adaptive Leadership: Defining What Constitutes Effective Leadership for Complex Organizational Contexts

This chapter offers a multilevel framework for what we term complex adaptive leadership (CAL). At the macro level, we draw from complexity theory and social network theory to explain how social interactions over diverse social networks results in emergent behavioral dynamics. At the micro level, we draw from cognitive complexity research to explain how leader complexity, and particularly self-complexity, enables the requisite variety of leader behaviors to respond to the demands of complex leadership challenges. We then converge macro and micro perspectives into a meso-level construct, CAL, to explain how leaders influence organizational adaptation and performance. Our model should be particularly useful for creating new flexible organizations for the knowledge era.