Leadership as an Emergent Feature in Social Organizations: Insights from A Laboratory Simulation Experiment.

Luis Curral,Pedro G Lind,Catarina Gomes,Pedro Marques-Quinteiro

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0166697

Abstract

Recent theoretical contributions have suggested a theory of leadership that is grounded in complexity theory, hence regarding leadership as a complex process (i.e., nonlinear; emergent). This article tests if complexity leadership theory promotes efficiency in work groups. 40 groups of five participants each had to complete four decision making tasks using the city simulation game SimCity4. Before engaging in the four decision making tasks, participants received information regarding what sort of leadership behaviors were more adequate to help them perform better. Results suggest that if complexity leadership theory is applied, groups can achieve higher efficiency over time, when compared with other groups where complexity leadership is not applied. This study goes beyond traditional views of leadership as a centralized form of control, and presents new evidence suggesting that leadership is a collective and emergent phenomenon, anchored in simple rules of behavior.

Highlights

In the few hours that followed hurricane Katrina in 2005, groups of self-organized citizens coordinated themselves to rescue the victims and take them to dry land, while others built improvised facilities to accommodate the injured and homeless [1]
As a first step to test this hypothesis, we examined the complex adaptive systems (CAS) compositional structures that emerged within the team
We found that the proportion of enablers was significantly greater for LS2 when compared to LS3 (χ2 = 5.1; p = 0.02) and to LS4 (χ2 = 3.1; p = 0.07)

Summary

Introduction

In the few hours that followed hurricane Katrina in 2005, groups of self-organized citizens coordinated themselves to rescue the victims and take them to dry land, while others built improvised facilities (e.g., hospitals) to accommodate the injured and homeless [1]. In the week that followed this event formal action and command protocols failed to deliver a timely solution to the calamity. The complexity of the scenario after the Katrina was so high that centralized forms of leadership were insufficient to deliver an efficient response [2]. Whereas centralized leadership structures proved unable to provide immediate solutions, decentralized forms of leadership led to the emergence of one self-organized complex adaptive system that was more efficient coping with the situation [3]. Leadership is regarded as a centralized form of control where one individual exerts power and influence upon others [4].

Objectives

Results

Conclusion