**6. The Impact of Care Behaviors on Relations within Organizations**

When leaders in organizations can establish psychological or socio-emotional connections with their followers through care communication, they are perceived by their followers to be fostering relatedness [48–51]. From this perspective, when the "care" behaviors are part of the competencies that organizations seek from their leaders, leadership development can support building the knowledge, skills, and experiences leaders need in business and social literacies among leaders [52]. Moreover, relationship building is among the top-ranking skills leaders need today [53,54]. Person-centered leadership approaches are also found to have the greatest psychological impact on employees [15]. Therefore, in response to leadership approaches that foster autonomy, control, and a sense of being cared for among stakeholders, the employees among them find they can work better with others around them. This is further supported by the engagement and relatability the blend of "care" behaviors represents for leaders as they focus on developing a human connection with the sense of self in their stakeholders. Lastly, in connecting with their person and their heart and mind, leaders who develop the heightened ability to engage self-awareness and self-belief empower themselves to engage a balance of energies that entrusts them to their followers [55]. When the experience between the leaders and followers include emotional engagement, the ability to evolve existing meaning into new meaning can occur [56,57]. This, in turn, supports the regeneration of employee wellbeing.

## **7. Complexity Leadership Theory in Complex Adaptive Organizations**

Complexity science has provided a useful approach to explaining the functioning of complex organizations, especially as complex global challenges such as the climate crisis and environmental disasters, future pandemics, local wars, terrorist attacks, and other potential calamities are on the increase. Such challenges are adaptive in the sense that they require more than technical solutions but rather rapid and agile changes in the way organizations function and the underlying values that guide them [1,2]. Complexity leadership theory in particular recognizes organizations as complex adaptive systems with interdependent parts. In complexity leadership theory, leadership is seen as a relational process that occurs throughout different system functions performed by both organizational staff as well as organizational processes. Given the complexity of global challenges, an androgynous leadership approach that includes both stereotypical masculine and feminine leadership approaches is required [1,2]. Care and people orientation are required by leaders throughout the system to establish and strengthen the required relationships, and task orientation is required in order to implement solutions.

One of the founders of complexity leadership theory, Uhl-Bien [1,2], recognized that complexity leadership theory is also a relational leadership theory [57]. Relational leadership emphasizes interpersonal experiences and personalized exchanges [58–60]. The engagement of relational leadership within complexity leadership theory as a framework offers flexibility to leaders as they are responsible for choosing how they engage with their followers in leader–follower exchanges. Within complex adaptive systems, administrative–procedural, operational, and human elements of the organization are in constant engagement with themselves as part of its operations. Complexity leadership theory offers leaders a frame within which to recognize the interdependencies of their system and how the system is highly influenced by its internal and external environment. Accordingly, leaders need to be able to adapt to changing conditions and enable solutions in response to these changes. Leaders engaging the "care" behaviors need to be able to communicate effectively with stakeholders and enable adaptive change. Collectively, enabling adaptive responses as well as the adaptive space within which these responses can be cultivated is key to leadership in complex adaptive systems [1]. Adaptive space and responses can be enabled through leadership activity which is influenced by the relationship leaders have with their followers. It is through the willingness to innovate and be creative and entrepreneurial in their thinking and actions that adaptive spaces are enabled. Moreover, engaging approaches that have adaptability and relatability built into them can further enhance the leader's ability to navigate, communicate, and lead through complex adaptive challenges.

Complexity leadership theory also recognizes how administrative, adaptive, and enabling powers in the organization work together [57–59]. Innovating leadership approaches through the lens of complexity leadership theory encourages the expansion of perspective as well as the broadening of the familiar scope of leadership competencies. The adaptivity and constant negotiation of interdependencies with complex adaptive systems organically provides an environment in which leaders who develop the "care" behaviors can thrive through successful relationships with their employees. Subsequently, the development of "care" behaviors and the wellbeing they can enable can increase co-creation, which in turn can enable adaptive solutions and adaptive spaces [1]. When communicating with each other, leaders in these areas can be guided to apply a blend of "care" behaviors especially when navigating complexities or projects, processes and organizational needs. Once familiar with how to combine "care" behaviors, leaders can learn to harness the tension between the novelty and stability of their environment and apply their blend of strategic relatedness to encourage innovation and continuous growth through the exchange of feedback [1].

In addition to the potential for influencing relationships throughout the organization, leaders can enhance their leadership approaches to blend the "care" behaviors in support of working with unexpected and non-linear challenges. Leaders need to be skilled to enable flexible options as part of their "fitness landscape" [60,61]. Subsequently, their ability to engage and influence their stakeholders is paramount. Leaders can benefit from the inclusive dynamic represented in complexity leadership theory to exemplify their engagement.

#### **8. Conclusions and Future Study**

I have argued that the care communication of certain leaders during the pandemic helped to build relationships with their constituents and followers and contributed to the perception that these leaders were implementing effective strategies to manage the pandemic. I further argued that the care manifested during the pandemic illustrated the importance of care to leadership in general and that care will be essential to include in leadership approaches to solve future global challenges. I pointed out that care is typically conceived of as feminine leadership and argued that feminine and masculine leadership are both important and should complement each other in androgynous leadership. I further contended that complexity theory and the concept of complex adaptive systems provides a conceptual framework within which to understand the challenges facing the global world. Within complex adaptive systems, complexity leadership theory illustrates that leadership occurs at all levels of the system and through all system processes, and that an androgynous leadership approach that highlights care and the importance of relationships is necessary to address these challenges.

Further, employee wellbeing can be fostered through enhanced leadership communications in which relationship building is demonstrated. Engaging a combination of behaviors originating in androgynous masculine and feminine leadership represents a strategic–relational blend of "care" behaviors that leaders can develop and apply toward stakeholders inclusive of constituents, followers, and employees in support of their wellbeing. These blended, accessible, and non-gendered behaviors available for leaders support the balanced skills portfolio essential for modern-day leaders in complex environments. The development of care awareness can further the understanding of the situation a leader has along with recognizing what their followers need from them and how they can build relatability. As a result, the "care" behaviors are essential to supporting the socio-emotional gap that can occur as a result of an imbalance in the wellbeing of employees.

Future studies can include, firstly, discussions and research into questions about which combinations of "care" behaviors are perceived to be most beneficial to different organizations or operating systems, and, secondly, research into the effects that the continuous development of "care" behaviors being leveraged over time in complex adaptive systems can have on influencing and sustaining employee as well as organizational wellbeing from an individual and collective perspective.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

#### **References**


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