Dear Mahmoud Zouaoui,

Leadership is indeed complex and there is no 'one size fits all' approach to leadership that ensures effectiveness. Complexity leadership theory is a new concept and is hard to specify due to its complex nature consisting of interrelations and interdependence between people, ideas and environment, compared with other approaches with leadership wresting with one person (leader) or a small group at the top.

Researching a field that is new is a challenge; however charting the uncharted course and creating new knowledge is what research is all about. To research this field of study, I would  do an in depth qualitative study first since I am not sure what I am going to find out. The benefit of qualitative approach (Grounded Theory or case study) for this kind of study is that there is no limit of what you would explore and you may be able to come out with your own ideas (tools? Theories?) which may be able to add to the scant literature on complexity leadership.

Happy researching!

Understanding Complexity, available at http://www.adb.org/publications/understanding-complexity, defines the key concepts of complexity theory and reproduces a leader’s framework for decision making in simple, complicated, complex, and chaotic contexts.

There several issues that are discussed in the following book! It must be useful.

Walker, J. R., & Miller, J. E. (2009). Supervision in the hospitality industry: Leading human resources: Wiley.

You may also contact with me for the soft copy if you think you need!

Warm Regards

You may find the following references of interest:

Cooke-Davies, T. 2011, Aspects of Complexity: Managing Projects in a Complex World, Project Management Journal.

Remington, K. & Pollack, J. 2007, Tools for complex projects, Gower Publishing Company.

Remington, K. 2011, Leading Complex Projects, Gower Publishing Company.

Williams 2002, Modeling Complex Projects.

Looking at complex thngs, people get perplexed, at times become clueless.Leaders have to first break the complecx things into small, simple things.Then delegate the simple things to their reporting officers.Leaders should take care in getting talented people on board and should build a bridge of trust and then put faith and weight behind them while executing.Also, the leader should gradually increase the complexity of the assignments given to the reporting officers so that they will be able to handle complexity in future.As Prof.Noman Mohammed opined, there is no universal solution; the solution depends on the the conext within and outside the organization.

Thanks all.

I think a qualitative study is a good idea. It would be relevant to carry out in-depth interview with leaders of organizations operating in complex environment. I have to select the pertinent concepts and themes to conduct interviews, basing on available literature.

I think it depends on sources of complexity  in an organization and the nature of organization industry. Complexity sometimes comes from Environmental dynamism or Environmental richness (resources available to support an organization’s domain). however, complexity can be managed with more available information to the organization to reduce environmental uncertainty . Many techniques can be used here such as improving business reputation and trust, formal and informal strategic alliances, Merger and takeover, and some aspects of organizational changes like Restructuring and process Re-engineering.

Hi Mahmoud Zouaoui, you have indeed raised a very relevant proposition. It is true that the present day organizations are  highly complex which encompass complex men, machines and technology affected by the environment. With so much complexities, the single mind of the leader may find it difficult to manage complexity sometimes. To me the leader need to be focused on the very genesis of the organization and the expectations with which he has been designated as a leader and should keep "contingency theory' in mind. When every thing is extremely favorable or extremely against, the leader should concentrate on "task orientation'. In rest of the other situations he may opt for "people orientation".          

Risk is defined in ISO31000 as "the effect of uncertainty on objectives" and complexity gives rise to uncertainty. Therefore, I think you are asking about risk in a complex organisation and how it can be assessed and managed.

I'd want to look at how the leadership team engages with stakeholders in the organisation (internal and external). I'd also use the risk management process set out in ISO31000 to help assess risk and support the process with relevant techniques such as interrelationship diagraming.

Hello Mahmoud Zouaoui, the question I can say is much interesting. This Single question can answer many such questions. It includes the broad perspective of entire scope of leadership. Complexity now a days is in every Organization. Bigger the organization, Wider the Complexity which again causes Confusion, Tedious and more Cost Involving. The first and foremost tool to manage Complexity is to allot work to the Human Capital, Induction of Skilled workers in the organization so that once said the work is ready on the table. Each person of the respective different departments should work under one  leader so that he can monitor the different Working Conditions and according to the Suitability allot work to his followers according to their Capabilities, Skills, Knowledge and Caliber.

Complexity is none more than Confusion and Chaos which can be Mitigated by an effective and Time-bound leader. If the leader is doing his work to its best he can control the organization towards its best and at last which can be in the favor of the Organization.

Thankyou

Any sizable airline is an example of a complex organization. It has global structure, sensitivity to events at home and abroad which include natural events, wide variety of  clients and nearly independently functioning units. 

Based on my experience 'll recommend the following recipe to manage effectively such an organization.

I have not included many normal functions here, which are routine in all organizations. Data Collection and Business Analytic's,  etc.

There may be a couple of more factors but above listed six points are essential from my point of view.

I mean by managing complexity that the leader has to deal with contradictory factors that characterize the organization as a chaotic system (order and disorder, formalism and non formalism, rationality and intuition, collectivism and individualism...). It's really difficult to conciliate these opposite elements, that require specific qualities of the leader and the use of particular tools. It would be useful to suggest what could be those qualities and tools.

Shared leadership can be the answer for managing organisational complexities. You may also go through the following papers

Mahmoud, if you haven't already done so, look into Ashby's Requisite Variety theory

A fair question, but one that raise another question.  Are you speaking about real or perceived complexity?  Real complexity can be dealt with typically through effective management (by reducing or eliminating some of the levels of the complexity that are causing problems (delays, excessive cost-overruns, etc).  But perceived complexity can typically only be dealt with through leadership.  The difference between management and leadership should be clear:  management is the almost science-like utilisation of resources in an efficient and appropriate way.  Leadership is more about creating an environment in which managers and employees can realise their potential, both individually and collectively.  As real complexity can be dealt with through making different decisions, where the challenges lie are in dealing with perceived complexity.  A very effective way to deal with perceived complexity is to use causal loop diagramming, with the people who believe that (perceived) complexity is high.  By having small groups of this population group prepare (with a trained  facilitators assistance) their views off where the complexity lies and its impact, and then comparing these diagrams, it is possible for the population to begin to see that the level of complexity that they 'feel' is most likely not as great as it actually is, and equally, show them how to effectively operate within the actual complexity that is inherent with medium and large organisations.  The attached diagram is an output of such an effort.

Are we talking about practical tools or conceptual tools?

If it is the former, perhaps a book chapter I wrote with Tomas Backstrom that looks at managing complexity through the lens of three specific dualities that would seem to suggest contradicting interpretations of events. this paper might offer some ideas (attached).  Also, an earlier paper I wrote  offers ideas on measuring leadership effectiveness in complex arenas and has some practical suggestions (attached).

With regards conceptual tools, perhaps this recent paper with Mary Uhl-Bien will offer something for you (attached).  This one also offers suggested leadership practices drawn from a review of qualitative studies. .FYI, I am currently testing the suggested practices in a a quantitative study in a large multinational firm. I would like to extend the data set to other firms if there are venues to which your have access. 

Good luck!

Article Measuring leadership effectiveness in complex socio-technical systems

Article Towards operationalizing complexity leadership: How generati...

Chapter Essential Reins for Guiding Complex Organizations – Chapter 7

Tarride, Mario Ivàn. “The Complexity of Measuring Complexity.” Kybernetes 42, no. 2 (2013): 174–84. doi:10.1108/03684921311310558.   And my personal view is that a combined ontological and constructive approach is most valuable. For the former, see for example Snowden, for the latter, Stacey.   Kurtz, Cynthia F, and David J Snowden. “The New Dynamics of Strategy: Sense-Making in a Complex and Complicated World.” IBM Systems Journal 42, no. 3 (2003): 462–83.   Stacey, Ralph D. Complex Responsive Processes in Organizations: Learning and Knowledge Creation. Kindle version., 2001. www.amazon.com.

Hi Mahmoud,

A key place where complexity and leadership are discussed is the International Journal for Complexity in Management and Leadership.

In defining complexity, which is complex in and of itself, a beautiful and recent resource is Tarride's article:

To be an effective leader, individuals must balance competing demands of an ever-changing conditions of their environment. The key to leadership in this context is two-fold: the capacity to appreciate and process paradoxical data (cognitive complexity) and possession of a range of leadership behaviours that will allow them to lead in this environment (behavioural complexity). We have used the Integrated Competing Values Framework (ICVF)  to elaborate on the leadership behaviours required. The ICVF also highlights the importance of critical observation skills, self-reflection and being able to develop one’s own leadership behaviours—all of which assist individuals to lead in a complex environment.

Mahmoud, this is a specific research interest of my colleagues and I. Please take a look at my publications "Beyond Leadership" and "Indian Aviation Leadership Engagement,,,". Also, you might check the work of Uhl-Bien, Hannah, Lord, Snowden, and others who are looking into complex adaptive leadership.

Article Beyond leadership

Article Indian Aviation Leadership Engagement: Case Study in Leaders...

Tricia,

The idea of range of leadership behaviours to deal with complexity is very interesting; I think you mean situational leadership. I agree with you; but the difficulty is to identify the different leadership behaviours dealing with complexity, and which of them is the most relevant in a particular context.

Finding Behavioral Complexity Leadership (BCL) style is long in existence but lately gaining popularity due to its complexity approach to leadership (Yukl, 2010) e.g. a project manager to lead in environment whereby stakeholders / customers need fastest time, lowest cost and the best quality (triple constraints in project management context).  I'd conducted similar research for project managers in Malaysia.  If you want, you can refer to the following articles:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260427723_RELATIONSHIPS_BETWEEN_LEADERSHIP_ROLES_AND_PROJECT_TEAM_EFFECTIVENESS_AS_PERCEIVED_BY_PROJECT_MANAGERS_IN_MALAYSIA

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275893468_MODERATING_EFFECTS_OF_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT_EXPERIENCE_PROJECT_TEAM_SIZE_PROJECT_DURATION_AND_PROJECT_VALUE_SIZE_ON_THE_RELATIONSHIP_BETWEEN_PROJECT_MANAGER%27S_LEADERSHIP_ROLES_AND_PROJECT_TEAM_EFFECTIVENESS_IN_MALAYSIA?ev=prf_pub

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236131444_FACTORS_INFLUENCING_PROJECT_TEAM_EFFECTIVENESS_AS_PERCEIVED_BY_PROJECT_MANAGERS_IN_MALAYSIA__A_PILOT_STUDY

Article RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LEADERSHIP ROLES AND PROJECT TEAM EFFE...

Article Moderating Effects of Project Management Experience, Project...

Conference Paper FACTORS INFLUENCING PROJECT TEAM EFFECTIVENESS AS PERCEIVED ...

The research and writing of Ralph Stacey can be of interest to you:

• Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics: the challenge of complexity to ways of thinking about organisations. Pearson Education (6th edition), London 2011.
• The Tools and Techniques of Leadership and Management: Meeting the challenge of complexity. Routledge, London 2012. ISBN 978-0-415-53118-4.

I find Mumford and Zaccaro to have fruitful approaches an models in this regard (see e.g., Zaccaro, Mumford et al., 2000). As regards your approach on 'tools'; - could this be 'reapproached' as competencies and problem-solving skills? (See e.g., Zaccaro, Kemp, and Bader's (2004, p. 122) highly fruitful model in this regard.   

Complexity to be connected with all the stakeholders like, investors, customers, suppliers, dealers, employees, management etc on one side. On the other side, function, process, technology, tools, infrastructure, culture, law and liabilities, which invite varied form of approach in dealing with complex and volatile business scenario.  

All companies must grow. It’s an imperative that drives companies to create new products and services, enter new regions, and move into new businesses. As they expand, they inevitably become more complex. Their organizational structures develop layers upon layers, their reporting lines become tangled … (Heywood, Hillar and Turnbull, 2010)

As such complexity of managing the organisation can be taxing, however, the larger the organisation, the more need for the control area. Therefore, in order to meet this complexity there is need to design an obligatory structure to maintain control over the organisation. Putting up sustainable control systems such as, instruments and internal control measures may help to manage the complexity.

i think leaders able to manage the complexity in organization by " co-creation" and by skills of sustainability leadership.