Complexity leadership theory and fostering organizational adaptability: Enabling leadership in complex systems change

Abstract

In this article, we extend the understanding of enabling leadership in complexity leadership theory by showing what enables and stifles organizational adaptability. By drawing on a case study of an organizational change related to competence supply in health and care services, we explore what (enabling) leaders do, in the different (i.e. ideation and scaling) stages of an adaptive process, to engage the two complexity (i.e. the tension and the linking up) dynamics that are essential for nurturing and sustaining adaptive processes in organizations. The results show that, in both stages, the way a complexity challenge is framed can determine the type of process it will trigger: if the challenge is framed as a technical one, while trying to eliminate tensions, the likely response is an order one; if the challenge is framed as a complex one, while trying to sustain tensions, the likely response is an adaptive one. Ideation can be held back by not only ‘external’ pressures but also ‘internally’ perceived scaling barriers. In scaling, dividing the implementation of a solution into phases can ‘buy time’ for the organization to ‘mature’ and, accordingly, to be better prepared for its implementation. Involving operational leadership early in the adaptive process, so that they assume certain ownership, can foster connecting and can contribute to navigating the linking up dynamic and thus reduce the risk of ideas “hitting the brick wall”. The support from managers at the ‘top’ of the system is essential for scaling adaptive processes and thus implementing systems change.