Civil Society Leadership as Learning
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis argues that learning to work with complexity is central to civil society leadership. The thesis provides evidence of three inter-related conditions that foster the emergence of civil society leadership: being open to rethinking our understanding about leadership; facilitating collaborative inquiry relationships; and embracing complexity thinking as a way of thinking, learning and acting. The thesis draws on findings from two action research studies of leadership in Aotearoa New Zealand. One research site was an academic leadership development programme for civil society organisation managers and leaders; the other was a national leadership team supporting leadership learning across diverse community-led development (CLD) initiatives. The thesis identifies the need to disturb some taken-for-granted assumptions about leadership (for example, images of strong, decisive, visionary heroes), and be open to other understandings of leadership if we are to enable everyone to see their potential role as active citizens. Leadership is reframed as learning, a process of personal and collective work within complex adaptive systems (CAS). Complexity thinking and collaborative inquiry research supported movement away from essentialist ideas of leadership, towards an emergent understanding of leadership as a complex, interactive learning dynamic, moving between polarities of potentially contradictory responses, to enable adaptive action. The thesis identifies properties and practices of leadership within four inter-related layers of civil society leadership: personal, relational, cultural and structural. The findings illustrate how people can explore different discourses through their practical involvement in the world and free themselves to some extent from cultural conditioning which may limit their potential to exercise leadership. The study shows how leadership as learning can be supported through collaborative inquiry as a means of co-constructing knowledge and act…
abstract: This thesis argues that learning to work with complexity is central to civil society leadership. The thesis provides evidence of three inter-related conditions that foster the emergence of civil society leadership: being open to rethinking our understanding about leadership; facilitating collaborative inquiry relationships; and embracing complexity thinking as a way of thinking, learning and acting. The thesis draws on findings from two action research studies of leadership in Aotearoa New Zealand. One research site was an academic leadership development programme for civil society organisation managers and leaders; the other was a national leadership team supporting leadership learning across diverse community-led development (CLD) initiatives. The thesis identifies the need to disturb some taken-for-granted assumptions about leadership (for example, images of strong, decisive, visionary heroes), and be open to other understandings of leadership if we are to enable everyone to see their potential role as active citizens. Leadership is reframed as learning, a process of personal and collective work within complex adaptive systems (CAS). Complexity thinking and collaborative inquiry research supported movement away from essentialist ideas of leadership, towards an emergent understanding of leadership as a complex, interactive learning dynamic, moving between polarities of potentially contradictory responses, to enable adaptive action. The thesis identifies properties and practices of leadership within four inter-related layers of civil society leadership: personal, relational, cultural and structural. The findings illustrate how people can explore different discourses through their practical involvement in the world and free themselves to some extent from cultural conditioning which may limit their potential to exercise leadership. The study shows how leadership as learning can be supported through collaborative inquiry as a means of co-constructing knowledge and act…
author: Malcolm, Margy-Jean
keywords: Collaborative inquiry, Complexity thinking, Civil society, Leadership, Community development, Action research
date published: 2013
date modified: 2026-07-27T18:46:06Z
provider: AUT University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: AUT University