Reconceptualizing Leadership Resilience in Complex Adaptive Management Systems: A Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

This study aimed to reconceptualize leadership resilience as an adaptive, relational, and system-level capability within complex adaptive management systems. This qualitative inquiry was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 24 senior and middle-level managers working in technology-intensive, service, manufacturing, financial, and public-sector organizations in Tehran, Iran. Participants were selected through purposive sampling based on managerial experience, exposure to organizational disruption, and direct involvement in strategic decision-making under uncertainty. Data collection continued until theoretical saturation was reached after the twenty-second interview, with two additional interviews conducted to confirm saturation. Interviews lasted between 45 and 75 minutes and focused on managers’ experiences of uncertainty, disruption, adaptive decision-making, team coordination, and resilience-building practices. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis supported by NVivo software. Coding proceeded through open coding, axial categorization, and theme development. Credibility was enhanced through member checking, peer review, code comparison, and maintenance of an audit trail. The analysis generated four main categories: adaptive sensemaking under uncertainty, distributed resilience through relational coordination, balancing control and emergence, and learning-based renewal after disruption. The findings showed that leadership resilience was not perceived merely as individual endurance or psychological toughness. Instead, participants described it as a dynamic capability through which leaders interpret weak signals, sustain collective confidence, mobilize cross-functional networks, tolerate temporary ambiguity, and transform disruption into organizational learning. Interview narratives indicated that resilient leadership emerged most strongly when formal authority was combined with participatory interpretation, rapid experimentation, and flexible coordination. The study concludes that leadership resilience in complex adaptive management systems should be understood as a multi-level adaptive process rather than a fixed leader trait. Resilient leaders do not simply absorb pressure; they create conditions through which organizational actors can make sense of uncertainty, coordinate distributed responses, and regenerate strategic capacity after disruption.