Abstract-+Uhl-Bien,+Marion+&+McKelvey

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 a framework for Complexity Leadership Theory, a leadership model that enables the learning, creative, and adaptive capacity of complex adaptive systems (CAS) within a context of knowledge producing organizations. This framework includes three entangled leadership roles (i.e., adaptive leadership, administrative leadership, and enabling leadership) that represent a dynamic relationship between the bureaucratic, administrative functions of the organization and the emergent, informal dynamics of complex adaptive systems (CAS).