Abstract
This study examines the relationship between integrative leadership and strategic outcomes in complex adaptive systems. We aim to develop a theoretical framework that explains how leadership practices influence organizational adaptability in turbulent environments and provide practical guidance for organizational leaders.
We employed a multi-modal methodology combining systematic meta-analysis of 87 empirical studies (2010-2025) with multi-level network analysis of six multinational organizations. This approach enabled triangulation across different data sources and analytical techniques to comprehensively map leadership-strategy dynamics across diverse organizational contexts.
We identified six mechanisms through which leadership and strategy co-evolve: collective sensemaking, adaptive tension management, network reconfiguration, paradoxical integration, distributed cognition, and temporal synchronization. Network analysis revealed three distinct leadership-strategy configurations, with distributed-integrated networks demonstrating superior adaptive capacity. Organizations with moderate centralization, high cross-level connectivity, and dense middle management clusters exhibited 37% higher adaptive performance.
Our sample focused on large multinational organizations, potentially limiting generalizability to smaller entities or different cultural contexts. Future research should examine leadership-strategy dynamics in diverse organizational types, entrepreneurial ventures, and ecosystem contexts.
For practitioners, we provide actionable guidance for developing leadership systems that enhance strategic adaptability, including recommendations for leadership development, organizational design, and strategic decision-making processes that enable simultaneous exploration and exploitation in complex environments.
In enhancing organizational adaptability, our framework contributes to organizational sustainability and resilience, potentially enabling more effective responses to societal challenges and promoting stable employment during periods of disruption and change.
This study transcends traditional dichotomies between leadership and strategy by empirically mapping their co-evolution within complex adaptive systems, offering the novel concept of "network fluidity" as a critical capability for strategic adaptation in volatile environments.
We employed a multi-modal methodology combining systematic meta-analysis of 87 empirical studies (2010-2025) with multi-level network analysis of six multinational organizations. This approach enabled triangulation across different data sources and analytical techniques to comprehensively map leadership-strategy dynamics across diverse organizational contexts.
We identified six mechanisms through which leadership and strategy co-evolve: collective sensemaking, adaptive tension management, network reconfiguration, paradoxical integration, distributed cognition, and temporal synchronization. Network analysis revealed three distinct leadership-strategy configurations, with distributed-integrated networks demonstrating superior adaptive capacity. Organizations with moderate centralization, high cross-level connectivity, and dense middle management clusters exhibited 37% higher adaptive performance.
Our sample focused on large multinational organizations, potentially limiting generalizability to smaller entities or different cultural contexts. Future research should examine leadership-strategy dynamics in diverse organizational types, entrepreneurial ventures, and ecosystem contexts.
For practitioners, we provide actionable guidance for developing leadership systems that enhance strategic adaptability, including recommendations for leadership development, organizational design, and strategic decision-making processes that enable simultaneous exploration and exploitation in complex environments.
In enhancing organizational adaptability, our framework contributes to organizational sustainability and resilience, potentially enabling more effective responses to societal challenges and promoting stable employment during periods of disruption and change.
This study transcends traditional dichotomies between leadership and strategy by empirically mapping their co-evolution within complex adaptive systems, offering the novel concept of "network fluidity" as a critical capability for strategic adaptation in volatile environments.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Strategy & Leadership |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 29 May 2025 |