Exploring leadership culture change within a non-profit organization

Abstract

How we conceptualize organizations and leadership in organizations is transforming as organizations face increasing dynamism. To understand this dynamic organizational reality, researchers and practitioners alike are increasingly directing their attention at understanding leadership in more complex adaptive organizational forms. However, although extant literature does provide some insight into the nature of leadership in complex organizations, the difficulties associated with the actual transition from traditionally top-down structured leadership to complexity leadership are less well understood. In this study, we explore a two-year long leadership culture change within a non-profit organization using an ethnographic approach. We draw from Complexity Leadership Theory as well as theorizing about organizational change and literature on the dynamics of organizational culture to understand how leadership culture changes. Five core themes encapsulating the stages of the leadership culture change process emer...