Leaders' framing of complex problems: The everyday institutional activity that enables and constrains adaptive responses in organizational settings.

The principal issue of interest underpinning this study is captured in the assertion of Heifetz et al. (2009) who stated that the most common cause of organizational failure is a consequence of treating complex problems (adaptive challenges in their words) as reducible, technical problems. The overall study has explored how and under what contextual conditions leaders' framing of complex problems influences organizational responses over time. The study is important since, despite the burgeoning body of literature on leadership, very little empirical research is available to deepen understanding and potentially explain how an organization actually achieves an adaptive response to a complex problem. This research project is designed around three core papers; a systematic literature review and two qualitative empirical research studies. The studies employ complementary interview techniques to elicit how individual leaders think about addressing complex problems within an organizational context and their perceived effectiveness of organizational response. Study 1 used the Repertory Grid technique (Kelly, 1955) to deepen understanding of leaders' personal constructs and study 2 used semi-structured interviews to reveal rich descriptions of the specific contextual conditions influencing leaders' framing processes. A total of 38 and 42 interviews were completed in studies 1 and 2 respectively, with experienced leaders from three hierarchical cohorts in the British Army (junior, middle and senior leaders). The empirical findings are relevant to future research in the problems, leadership, institutional theory and framing literature domains. Methodological contributions are also made in the application of a critical realist perspective to epistemologically diverse literatures, to deepen understanding of the structural forces influencing leaders' framing of complex problems in an organizational setting. Finally, several practical recommendations relevant to management practice are offered.