P29 The leadership imperatives of collaboration, adaptation and complexity

Description

Populism, wealth inequality and inequity, climate grief, armed conflicts, migration unrest, AI disruption and cyber insecurity are all helping to fuel a general sense of public fear, unpicking the glue of solidarity and community connection (Andersson et al., 2022; Becker et al., 2021; Bian et al., 2022; Kurer, 2020; McCandless et al., 2022; Wirtz et al. 2021). In developed countries, this includes increasing preoccupation with individual and societal effects of loneliness (Crowe et al., 2024; Cruwys, 2023; Holt-Lunstad et al., 2017; Putnam, 2015)[i], and the need to establish meaningful community and social capital (Tierney et al., 2024; Munford & Gray, 2023).[ii]

Hence, civic engagement and social capital could not be more important in this era of political, economic and social disruption (Gil-Lacruz et al., 2023; Giuliano & Wacziarg, 2020; Krings, 2022). These challenges are particularly acute in emerging economies that must also make progress on the increasing urgency of addressing sustainable development goals (Bisogno et al., 2023), demanding an understanding of the distinct challenges and opportunities these countries face (Ohemeng & Kamga, 2019; Rahman et al., 2023).

Consequently, as public service delivery becomes more complex and dependent on efforts from different stakeholders across organizational units, government levels, and outside the public sphere, demands on leadership have increased rapidly (Vangen et al 2015). Leadership research must incorporate this increasing complexity to foster collaborative responses in the public domain to deal with the social and environmental challenges at hand. Finally, the role of leadership in cultivating and empowering human resources emerges as a critical factor in shaping the capacity of public organizations to navigate these challenges and deliver effective governance (Kravariti et al., 2022).

However, classic research on leadership has mostly focused on the dyadic relationship between leaders and their followers (Livi et al. 2008), underestimating the complexity of leadership practice. In more recent studies, early insights into the impact of emergent, shared, and collaborative leadership have been explored (Jakobsen et al 2023; Regal et al. 2023; van der Hoek & Kuipers 2024; Bonnesen & Thomsen 2024; Grøn 2024; van Osch et al. 2024).

In response, this panel seeks to address these gaps by investigating three key dimensions of public sector leadership: (i) (Re)Generating agency and options through adaptive leadership; (ii) More collective and collaborative conceptualizations of leadership (Ospina 2017); and (iii) Exploring the various dimensions of public sector leadership that impact Human Resource Development (HRD) in emerging economies. There are three streams to this panel, corresponding with these three foci within the overarching aim of this panel.

Stream 1 - (Re)Generating agency and options through adaptive leadership to meet the needs of a world desperately in need of community solidarity and human connection

In adaptive leadership terms, individuals and organisations need to seek out whether to persist in working productively with tension and unrest or find new possibilities within the ‘productive zone of disequilibrium’. Adaptive leadership studies identify huge opportunities and merit in democratising leadership, treasuring local knowledge and connections. Consequently, the call is for an increased appreciation of relationality and divergence as a respectful way of honouring peoples of diverse backgrounds and views. However, instead of avoiding conflict, adaptive leadership encourages us to run towards it to seek out how progress can be made amidst the leadership task of ‘disappointing people at a rate they can tolerate’.

Stream 2 - Leading Collaboration – The role of leadership in facilitating collaboration within and across public organizations

While classical leadership theory provides an essential conceptual and empirical starting point for understanding leadership, it underestimates the complexity of leadership practice in many public organizations. Here, the involvement of a multitude of stakeholders is politically and societally expected and essential to both service delivery (Backhaus & Vogel, 2022: 999) and broader societal value (Kuipers & Murphy, 2023).

Stream 3 – The Leadership Imperative: Building Human Resource Capacity Through Effective Leadership for a Thriving Public Sector in Emerging Economies

The complex and multifaceted dimensions of public sector leadership require a unique set of skills and competencies to navigate the intricacies of public administration (Van Wart, 2003). Moreover, the context of emerging economies adds further layers of complexity. While the literature has explored leadership in public administration, there remains a dearth of research that specifically examines the intersection of leadership, human resource development (HRD), and the specific dynamics of emerging economies (Brunetto and Beattie, 2020).

Corresponding panel and review group chair 

Associate Professor Jim Rooney (Director, Public Service Research Group; Associate Professor of Accounting and Governance, UNSW Canberra), email: james.rooney@unsw.edu.au

Panel chair lead(s) 

Stream 1 - Professor Catherine Althaus (ANZSOG Chair of Public Service Leadership and Reform, UNSW; and member of the Public Service Research Group);

Stream 2 - Associate Professor Mette Kjærgaard Thomsen (University of Southern Denmark);

Stream 3 - Professor Prof Quamrul Alam (Central Queensland University).

Panel co-organisers

Stream 1

• Professor Deborah Blackman (Associate Dean, Lifelong Learning; Professor in Public Sector Management Strategy UNSW Canberra; and member of the Public Service Research Group) 
• Dr. Shibaab Rahman (UNSW Canberra and member of the Public Service Research Group)

Stream 2

• Associate Professor Matthias Döring, Department of Political Science and Public Management, University of Southern Denmark
• Associate Professor Mads Leth Jakobsen, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University
• Associate Professor Anne Mette Kjeldsen, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University[1]
• Professor Ben Kuipers, Institute of Public Administration, Leiden University

Stream 3[2]

• Associate Professor Huong Le CQUniversity, Melbourne campus, Australia.
• Dr Shibaab Rahman The University of New South Wales (UNSW), Canberra, Australia.       

Intended contribution

We welcome both conceptual and empirical papers that utilize a variety of research methodologies and theoretical frameworks. Potential research topics could include, but are not limited to:

Stream 1 - This stream seeks contributions that focus on new ways of thinking/models to harness civic engagement and social capital based on concepts of adaptive leadership, including:

• How can adaptive leadership be used to support meaningful and impactful civic engagement and social capital production?
• What is a useful example of adopting an adaptive approach to public management issues and what can be learnt from success and/or failures?
• When is a system ripe for adaptive leadership interventions and when is it not and what does this mean for public management practice?
• What does the manifestation of adaptive leadership look like in community contexts, during times of peaceful movements as well as instability and conflict? What can we learn from comparative analysis of such lessons?
• How can we achieve construct clarity and paradigmatic precision around the use of the term ‘adaptive leadership’, especially from within the settings of the public management discipline?

Stream 2 - This stream wants to push the leadership research agenda forward by inviting papers that focus on leading and managing the following diverse types of collaborations in public organizations:

• Leadership across organizational jurisdictions (e.g., transversal leadership, boundary spanning)
• Leadership across organizational units within the same organization (e.g., social capital or relational leadership)
• Leadership of networks and public value creation
• Leadership of teams in comparison with the classic dyadic perspective shared leadership within teams on all organizational levels (from operations to top/management)
• Leadership of volunteers and civil society

Stream 3 - We encourage submissions from scholars across disciplines, including public administration, human resource management, organizational behaviour, and political science. We particularly welcome research that draws on diverse theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches to shed light on the complex relationship between public sector leadership and HRD in emerging economies, including:

• The role of leadership in fostering a culture of innovation and adaptability within public organizations.
• The impact of leadership development programs on the effectiveness of public sector leaders in emerging economies.
• The influence of cultural and institutional contexts on public sector leadership and HRD practices.
• The challenges and opportunities of digital transformation for public sector leadership and HRD.
• The role of leadership in promoting social equity and inclusion through HRD initiatives.

Panel Methods and Structure

There will be two talks to introduce and close the entire panel within the common overarching leadership theme (‘The leadership imperatives of collaboration, adaptation and complexity’). The panel sessions will be split into the three themes in separate rooms where papers will be presented in panel stream sessions of 1.5 hours covering 4 or 5 papers per session. An introduction by the Lead stream Co-chair(s) as well as a Q&A session will be included in each of these sessions.

Panel Call for Abstracts

Abstracts are due by date announced on the IRSPM 2025 Conference Call for Abstract webpage and must be submitted through the ExOrdo system. Email submissions will not be accepted.

Abstracts should be 300-500 words. In addition to the abstract text, please:

• Nominate the leadership panel stream the paper is addressing.
• Explain how the proposed presentation relates to the panel topic description above (at a stream level). It will also need to engage with the 2025 IRSPM Conference invitation to examine the question on “Civic engagement and social capital in contemporary public management: facing the challenges of social equity and environmental sustainability” in a manner that is relevant to IRSPM participants.

• Provide a list of key references.
• Advise whether you will submit a full paper (preferred) or if this is a work in progress seeking feedback, or other form of presentation.

References

Andersson, C., Hallin, A., & Ivory, C. (2022). Unpacking the digitalisation of public services: Configuring work during automation in local government. Government Information Quarterly, 39(1), 101662.

Backhaus, L., & Vogel, R. (2022). Leadership in the public sector: A meta-analysis of styles, out-comes, contexts, and methods. Public Administration Review, 82(6), 986-1003.

Becker, J. C., Hartwich, L., & Haslam, S. A. (2021). Neoliberalism can reduce well‐being by promoting a sense of social disconnection, competition, and loneliness. British Journal of Social Psychology, 60(3), 947-965.

Bian, B., Li, J., Xu, T., & Foutz, N. Z. (2022). Individualism during crises. Review of Economics and Statistics, 104(2), 368-385.

Bisogno, M., Cuadrado-Ballesteros, B., Rossi, F. M., & Peña-Miguel, N. (2023). Sustainable development goals in public administrations: Enabling conditions in local governments. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 89(4), 1223-1242.

Bonnesen, L. & M. K. Thomsen (2024). The management of volunteers in public services: A systematic review and a theoretical synthesis. Working paper.

Brunetto, Y. & Beattie, R., (2020) Changing role of HRM in the public sector, Public Management Review, 22:1, 1-5, DOI: 10.1080/14719037.2019.1645876

Crowe, C. L., Liu, L., Bagnarol, N., & Fried, L. P. (2024). Loneliness prevention and the role of the public health system. Perspectives in public health, 144(1), 31-38.

Cruwys, T. (2023). Future Directions in Addressing Loneliness Among Older Adults. Advances in Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, 3(1), 187-195.

Gil-Lacruz, M., Gimenez, G., Saz-Gil, I., & Gil-Lacruz, A. I. (2023). Healthy organizations and social capital: promotion of wellbeing. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1204837.

Giuliano, P., & Wacziarg, R. (2020). Who voted for Trump? Populism and social capital (No. w27651). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Grøn, A. B. (2024). Bridge over troubled waters? Experimental evidence into the influence of leadership on employees' collaborative engagement. Public Administration Review.

Holt-Lunstad, J., Robles, T. F., & Sbarra, D. A. (2017). Advancing social connection as a public health priority in the United States. American psychologist, 72(6), 517.

Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., & Layton, J. B. (2010). Social relationships and mortality risk: a meta-analytic review. PLoS medicine, 7(7), e1000316.

Jakobsen, M. L, A. M. Kjeldsen, & T. Pallesen (2023). Distributed Leadership and Performance-Related Employee Outcomes in Public Sector Organizations. Public Administration 101 (2): 500–521.

Kravariti, F., Tasoulis, K., Scullion, H., & Alali, M. K. (2022). Talent management and performance in the public sector: the role of organisational and line managerial support for development. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 34(9), 1782–1807.

Krings, W. (2022). The importance of social capital in the VUCA environment. In The Global Impact of Social Innovation: Disrupting Old Models and Patterns (pp. 179-191). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Kuipers, B. S., & Murphy, J. (2023). A Multi-Level Leadership Spectrum for Collective Good. Journal of Change Management, 23(4), 323-336.

Kurer, T. (2020). The declining middle: Occupational change, social status, and the populist right. Comparative Political Studies, 53(10-11), 1798-1835.

Livi, S., Kenny, D. A., Albright, L., & Pierro, A. (2008). A social relations analysis of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 19(2), 235-248.

McCandless, S., Bishu, S. G., Gomez Hernandez, M., Paredes Eraso, E., Sabharwal, M., Santis, E. L., & Yates, S. (2022). A long road: Patterns and prospects for social equity, diversity, and inclusion in public administration. Public Administration, 100(1), 129-148.

Munford, L., & Gray, D. (2023). Community and civic participation effects on health and well-being. In Handbook on the Political Economy of Health Systems (pp. 177-199). Edward Elgar Publishing.

Ohemeng, F. L., & Kamga, O. (2020). Administrative leaders as institutional entrepreneurs in developing countries: A study of the development and institutionalization of performance management in Ghana's public service. Public Administration and Development, 40(1), 87-100.

Putnam, R. D. (2015). Bowling alone: America’s declining social capital. In The city reader (pp. 188-196). New York: Routledge.

Rahman, S., Teicher, J., Cox, J. W., & Alam, Q. (2023). Slipstreaming for public sector reform: How enterprising public sector leaders navigate institutional inertia. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 33(1), 4-18.

Tierney, S., Rowe, R., Connally, E. L., Roberts, N. W., Mahtani, K. R., & Gorenberg, J. (2024). Community initiatives for well‐being in the United Kingdom and their role in developing social capital and addressing loneliness: A scoping review. Lifestyle Medicine, 5(1), e298.

Van der Hoek, M., & Kuipers, B. S. (2024). Who are leading? A survey of organizational context explaining leadership behaviour of managers and non-managerial employees in public organizations. Public Management Review, 26(4), 1083-1107.

van Osch, L., Groeneveld, S., & Kuipers, B. (2024). Creating public value in frontline teams: an empirical exploration of shared leadership behaviour by frontline officials. Public Management Review, 1-20.

Vangen, S., Hayes, J. P., & Cornforth, C. (2015). Governing cross-sector, inter-organizational collaborations. Public Management Review, 17(9), 1237-1260.

Van Wart M (2003) Public-sector leadership theory: An assessment. Public Administration Review, 63(2): 214–228.

Wirtz, B. W., Langer, P. F., & Fenner, C. (2021). Artificial intelligence in the public sector-a research agenda. International Journal of Public Administration, 44(13), 1103-1128.