| The agility to construct and reconcile multiple mental frameworks, make deep conclusions concerning others' intentions and affective states, and integrate conflicting goals, strategies, and values is considered the most important, yet often difficult, transformational leadership responsibility. Simple approaches may be appealing, and within reach, but, where leaders are expected to solve problems that are multilevel, paradoxical, and unstructured, an awareness of and the ability to act upon multiple perspectives may be necessary to a healthy adaptation in today's world. The primary question that this research addresses is whether a leader who is able to think and act in a complex manner, that is, a leader who is cognitively, socially, and behaviorally complex, will be perceived by her or his constituents as more effective and more transformational than will a leader who thinks and behaves in a less complex manner. The study used the Full Range Leadership Model as the theoretical framework for conceptualizing transformational, transactional, and passive/avoidant leadership behaviors. The Paragraph Completion Inventory, the Role Category Questionnaire, and the Competing Values Framework were adopted as instruments in this study to measure various forms of complexity. I studied 60 executives who were rated by 273 of their constituents and found that transformational executives displayed a significantly greater degree of cognitive complexity, social complexity, and behavioral complexity than did their transactional or passive/avoidant counterparts. Moreover, all three forms of complexity were found to be significantly associated with constituent satisfaction and tendency for extra effort and with perceived leadership effectiveness. Finally, I found that cognitive and social complexity may be critical to transformational leadership but only when these are displayed through the performance of multiple and contradictory roles. This finding supports the proposition that the disposition of cognitive and social complexity may indeed be necessary conditions for transformational leadership behaviors but not sufficient conditions. |
