Complexity Leadership
Academy of Management
Professional Development Workshop
August 4, 2007
Purpose

Catalyze the emergence of an empirical research
agenda to develop complexity leadership ideas.

Enable a rich, collaborative interaction network
among scholars who are theorizing,
experimenting and innovating in the complexity
leadership area.

Innovate thru high quality research to be
published in upcoming books & journal issues.
What We Have Planned

Overview of Complexity Leadership

Deeper dive into key areas of interest






Leadership and non-linear dynamical systems
Emergence and leadership
Top-down versus bottom-up
Leadership as enabling & catalyzing interactions
Dynamic network analysis
Innovation and creativity as outcomes

Focus on specific research questions

Interactive sessions on research design
Overview of Field


Began with Marion & Uhl-Bien (2001) LQ
Developments since then:






Special issue of LQ out now August, 2007
Two Books in press by Uhl-Bien & Marion and Hazy,
Goldstein & Lichtenstein
Special Issue of Emergence: Complexity and
Organizations (E:CO) 8(4) December 2006
Articles on complexity and leadership appearing in major
journals (LQ, AMJ)
Two workshops held in 2005 on Complexity and
Leadership
Wiki page and network of scholars
What is Complexity Leadership?

Application of complexity science to
principles to leadership

Complexity science developed in the physical
sciences
New paradigm to think about leadership
based in complex adaptive systems
(rather than bureaucracy)
 This paradigm well suited to the needs of
the global, connectionist, knowledge era

Basics of Complexity Theory
Complex systems/ complex adaptive systems
Interacting sets of autonomous agents or ideas
Characteristics:






The time dimension: dynamical systems and attractors
Interactive, interdependent agents
Emergence of properties at higher levels
Evolutionary selection at multiple levels
Network structures
Innovation, learning & complexity
Deeper dives into themes

Non-Linear dynamical systems
Kevin

Emergence & leadership
Jim

Bottom-up & top-down
Mary

Enabling & catalyzing interactions
Russ

Network dynamics
Craig

Innovation & complexity leadership
Gita
Complexity Leadership
Non-Linear Dynamical Systems
Kevin Dooley
Nonlinear dynamical systems
Nonlinear dynamical systems: Analytical
concepts and empirical tools that model
the temporal behavior of complex systems
 Assumptions




Generative mechanisms drive system evolution
We can observe temporal patterns to identify
the underlying generative mechanisms
Key concepts

Attractors, nonlinearity, bifurcations, chaos
NDS - Insights

General insights

Types of attractors




Point, periodic, chaotic, and random
Type determined by # of factors & how they interact
Attractor type  predictability & sensitivity
Leadership insights



Limits to prediction
Attractors both stabilizing and constraining
Dynamical patterns exist and co-evolve across
temporal scales
NDS – Research Questions

Theoretical




How do different patterns of interaction create
different types of attractors?
How can purely analytical formulations inform
real-life social action?
What about randomness?
Methodological


How do we model evolving networks?
How do we study system dynamics across
different time scales?
Complexity Leadership
Emergence & Leadership
Jim Hazy
Emergence & leadership: Definitions

Group or team leadership as organizing
patterns & emergent social structures.



Agents engage in “self-transcendent
construction” to enable emergence as
described above.



Agents choose between self-interest and cooperation
Cooperation can lead to coordinated behaviors in routines
Agents are motivated be part of a larger whole
Some agents enable others to “construct” an emergent order
Four levels of emergence identified.
Each may involve different leadership.

Networks, Groups, Hierarchy & Coordination
Emergence & leadership: Insights

Networks



Groups




Bifurcation from self-interest to correlated action
Decomposed into modular forms with hardening boundaries
Styles and acts of leadership impact group stability
Hierarchy




Leader/follower influence dyads & groupings
Leaders style impacts evolution of network structure
Leader roles emerge and persist
Certain conditions imply formal leadership attractor dynamics
and thus potentially hierarchy
Leaders recognizing self-organized patterns, both good and bad
to monitor and maintain hierarchy
Coordination


Exploration versus exploitation tension
Centralized versus decentralized control tension
Emergence & Leadership:
Research Questions

What factors impact the strength and
timing of collective bifurcation from selfinterested to correlated action?

What factors influence recruitment and
defection into and out of led-groups?

How do information flows impact
leadership dynamics among, for example,
formal, emergent and shared leadership?
Complexity Leadership
Bottom-Up & Top-Down
Mary Uhl-Bien
Bottom-Up & Top-Down:
Definitions

In complexity, order emerges from
interacting agents and their interaction
with the environment


Order is not imposed exogenously
Therefore, leadership is not only topdown, it is also bottom-up when
interacting agents act as catalysts of
bottom-up emergent structures &
organizing patterns
Bottom-Up & Top-Down:
Insights

Lets us see different forms of leadership





not restricted to formal (managerial) roles
process that emerges informally & bottom-up
a complex interactive dynamic
embedded in context
Entanglement

this informal, emergent leadership interacts
with administrative (managerial, bureaucratic)
leadership in a manner we call entanglement
Bottom-Up & Top-Down:
Research Questions

Theoretical


How do we manage entanglement? How does
top-down (i.e., hierarchical) leadership
recognize and interact with bottom up
leadership?
Methodological



If we take leadership out of a formal
(managerial) role how do we identify what is
leadership?
How do we capture the complex dynamics
(e.g., context) that comprise leadership?
How do we measure bottom-up leadership?
Complexity Leadership
Enabling & Catalyzing Interactions
Russ Marion
Enabling & Catalyzing Interactions:
Definitions
Enabling Actions: Fosters conditions in
which complex dynamics can emerge
 Examples







Foster Interaction
Fosters Interdependencies
Creates adaptive tension
Generates adaptive rules
Embraces heterogeneity
Enabling is a dynamic (i.e., mechanism)
rather than an event
Enabling & Catalyzing Interactions:
Issues
Catalyst: agents, behaviors, ideas whose
actions speed complex dynamics or foster
elaboration
 Catalysts are both products of complex
interactions and productive of complex
interactions

Enabling & Catalyzing Interactions:
Research Questions

Theoretical



How do leaders enable conditions that foster
complex dynamics?
How do leaders enable catalysts?
Methodological


What are the (interactive) mechanisms by
which ideational and structural elaborations
are catalyzed?
What enabling dynamics foster emergent
outcomes (e.g., learning, creativity,
adaptability)?
Complexity Leadership
Network Dynamics
Craig Schreiber
Network Leadership Dynamics:
Definitions
Leadership
of Context
Administrative Leadership
Traditional top-down
Enabling Leadership
Conditions
• Relational Coupling
• Requisite Variety
• Organizational Form
• Stress
Enabling Leadership
Adaptive Leadership
Emergent
collective action
Learning &
Adaptation
Leadership
in Process
Network Dynamics: Insights

Leadership in process

Several forms of leadership (Catalysts)

Creating interactions and interdependencies
- Cognitive Demand





Enhancing knowledge flows – Degree Centrality
Maintaining relational coupling – Boundary Spanner
Increasing the speed of learning – Closeness Centrality
Communicating new knowledge – Effective Network Size
Concurrent and complex leadership dynamic



Distinct leaders
Shared leadership within and between forms
Individual leaders can enact leadership within multiple
forms
Network Dynamics:
Research Questions

What are the contextual conditions that
lead to emergent and productive collective
action?

How do the various leadership forms work
together and how does this complex
dynamic foster emergent outcomes?

What additional variables and metrics are
needed?
Complexity Leadership
Innovation & Complexity
Leadership
Gita Surie
Innovation & Complexity
Leadership

Conceptual model of innovation based on
interactions and complexity leadership



Interactions are basic unit in complex system
dynamics
Specific interaction patterns can help to nurture
innovation
‘Generative’ leadership directs and manages
interactions to maintain balance or ‘edge of
chaos’
Innovation & Complexity
Leadership

Enabling innovation requires:



Increasing interactions & introducing novelty
Managing complexity
Generative leaders nurture innovation by
focusing on:



Manipulating rules of collaboration
Catalyzing the context
Changing the system-environment model
Innovation and complexity
leadership
A model of generative leadership: Leveraging
internal and external interactions
Predictive
Model
Rapid
Iteration
&
Feedback
Environmental
Opportunity
Internal
Organizations
External
Organizations
Team A
Team B
Team C
ExtOrg 1
ExtOrg 2
ExtOrg 3
…
…
Team N
ExtOrg M
Figure 3. Innovation dynamics leverage internal and external interactions to match predictive models to
opportunities via rapid interaction and feedback
Innovation and Complexity
Leadership – Research Questions

Theoretical
- How do interactions help to nurture innovation in
complex systems?
 What interaction patterns enable innovation?
 What is the nature of leadership that enables
innovation in complex systems?

Methodological


How do we model the emergence of innovation
in complex systems?
How do we study complexity leadership?
Complexity Leadership
Research Questions Breakout
Research Questions for Discussion

How do different patterns of interaction
create different types of attractors?

What contextual conditions imply
emergent and productive collective action?

How does top-down (i.e., hierarchical)
leadership recognize and interact with
bottom up patterns and leadership?

How do interactions help to nurture
innovation in complex systems?
What you can do to help

Ask your institutional libraries to purchase
these new Complexity Leadership Books

Actively use these ideas in you research

If appropriate reference these works so people
learn about them

Respond to the CFP on new book

Sign up for our mailing list and visit/join
http://complexityleadership.wikispaces.com
Complexity Leadership
Thanks!