| In an increasingly complex environment, organizations attempt to enhance their results by using new forms of work organization in complex matrix structures, with implications on leadership in organizations, particular at the work team level.;Complexity theory prompts to a new understanding of organizational phenomena regarding the organization and its members as complex adaptive systems in interaction with each-other and continuously co-evolving. In the complexity worldview the study of team leadership asks for the development of new theories and research methodologies, spanning across multiple levels of analysis.;The purpose of this study is to propose new theoretical premises, moving away from the leader-centered theories, where team leadership is explained as a dynamic process shaped by the interactions between organizational members. Team leadership is regarded as a collective construct, its dynamic depending on the adaptive tensions arising from the interactions between diverse team members, the conflicts over limited resources, and task and environment constraints. In order to test these theoretical premises the study proposes a computer simulation model as a multi-level longitudinal research method, using an agent-based modeling approach where autonomous agents interact following a set of rules, similar to the way teams operate.;Findings from the computational experiments point to the dynamic nature of leadership, emerging from team members' interactions motivated by their task-orientation, needs for social relationships, and environment search. The study shows that team leadership is a mix of three forms of leadership: formal, emergent (exercised by team members), and shared leadership (exercised by the team as a collective), continuously co-evolving in response to the tensions induced by the changes in the environment and team composition.;The study makes advances towards a new theoretical framework for leadership based on the application of complexity theory, and a model-centered organization science research, with broad implications for theory, research, and practice. Prominent among the implications is the need for theorists to re-conceptualize leadership as a process, and devise methods for organizational, team, and individual learning to support leadership development in organizations. |
