Complexity Leadership Theory: Shifting leadership from the industrial age to the knowledge era

Leadership models of the last century have been products of top-down, bureaucratic paradigms. These models are eminently effective for an economy premised on physical production but are not well-suited for a more knowledge-oriented economy. Complexity science suggests a different paradigm for leadership—one that frames leadership as a complex interactive dynamic from which adaptive outcomes (e.g., learning, innovation, and adaptability) emerge. This article draws from complexity science to develop an overarching framework for the study of Complexity Leadership Theory, a leadership paradigm that focuses on enabling the learning, creative, and adaptive capacity of complex adaptive systems (CAS) within a context of knowledge-producing organizations. This conceptual framework includes three entangled leadership roles (i.e., adaptive leadership, administrative leadership, and enabling leadership) that reflect a dynamic relationship between the bureaucratic, administrative functions of the organization and the emergent, informal dynamics of complex adaptive systems (CAS). [Copyright 2007 Elsevier]

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	Uhl-Bien, Mary Professor, Howard Hawks Chair in Business Ethics and Leadership Expertise: Business Ethics Leadership Organizational Behavior Management CBA 269 P.O. Box 880491 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE 68588-0491, USA Phone: (402) 472-2314 Fax: (402) 472-5855 mbien2@unl.edu	Uhl-Bien, Mary	Management