Leadership and collective requisite complexity

Abstract

We maintain that the requisite complexity of collectives is an important component of collective learning and adaptive performance. Collective requisite complexity is comprised of two components: static complexity, which consists of group or team heterogeneity in general cognitive, social, self, and affective domains; and dynamic complexity, which is a social interactive process by which one person’s contributions transform those of another. We propose that social-regulation processes involving active goals, identity, and affect, as well as formal and emergent leadership processes, such as shared leadership, provide the key social structures within which dynamic complexity emerges. We also propose that successful adaptation to task or organizational demands, as well as social feedback, transform these structural aspects through “double-loop learning” and provide a basis for individual and collective learning.