Adaptive leadership theory: Leading and following as a complex adaptive process

Publication date: 2011 Source:Research in Organizational Behavior, Volume 31 Author(s): D. Scott DeRue In this article, I develop a theory explaining how recurring patterns of leading–following interactions produce emergent leader–follower identities, relationships and social structures that enable groups to develop and adapt in dynamic contexts. In describing this emergent leading–following process, I attempt to shift the theoretical focus away from people as leaders or followers, and instead foreground the evolutionary value of a dynamic and fluid leading–following process. By emphasizing an interactive and contextually embedded process of leading and following in groups, this theory provides a theoretical basis for challenging the individualistic, hierarchical, one-directional and de-contextualized notions of leadership that permeate the existing literature.

Source: Research in Organizational Behavior - November 3, 2014 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research