Complexity Leadership

Complexity Leadership

Academy of ManagementProfessional 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 SystemsKevin 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 & LeadershipJim Hazy

Emergence & leadership: Definitions

Group or team leadership as organizing patterns & emergent social structures. Agents choose between self-interest and cooperation Cooperation can lead to coordinated behaviors in routines

Agents engage in “self-transcendent construction” to enable emergence as described above. 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 Leader/follower influence dyads & groupings Leaders style impacts evolution of network structure

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 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 self-interested 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-DownMary 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 top-down, 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 InteractionsRuss 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 DynamicsCraig Schreiber

Network Leadership Dynamics: Definitions

Administrative Leadership

Adaptive Leadership

Enabling Leadership

Conditions

Emergent collective action

Learning & Adaptation

Enabling Leadership

Traditional top-down

Leadership of Context

Leadership in Process

• Relational Coupling• Requisite Variety• Organizational Form• Stress

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 & ComplexityLeadership

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 & ComplexityLeadership

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

Figure 3. Innovation dynamics leverage internal and external interactions to match predictive models to opportunities via rapid interaction and feedback

Team ATeam BTeam C

…

Team N

ExtOrg 1ExtOrg 2ExtOrg 3

…

ExtOrg M

ExternalOrganizations

InternalOrganizations

PredictiveModel

EnvironmentalOpportunity

RapidIteration

&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

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Complexity Leadership

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