Enhancing adaptability: leadership strategies to accommodate change in local government settings

The social influence processes of leadership were investigated within the substantive context of turbulent change in selected local government authorities. The grounded theory method was used to analyze qualitative data. It was found that the basic social process of “enhancing adaptability” emerged from the analysis. This basic social process integrated a range of lower level concepts and explained variation between those concepts. The subsidiary social process of resolving uncertainty also emerged from the analysis. The theory of enhancing adaptability is posited to explain the phenomenon of leadership within the substantive context of change in local government. A number of leadership strategies are presented.