Facing the Complexity Gap: Developing Leaders’ Reasoning Skills to Meet the Complex Task Demands of their Roles

This thesis contributes to theory, research, and practice about leaders’ ability to navigate organisational complexity. This aim was underpinned by three research questions which we readdressed by four empirical studies. Findings from Studies 1 and 2 suggest that cognitive-developmental scores, but not ego development scores, reflect the underlying construct of hierarchical complexity. Findings from Study 3 suggest there is a significant complexity gap between leaders’ reasoning skills and the task demands of their roles, particularly for senior and executive leaders. Findings from Study 4 suggest leaders develop their reasoning skills, even though direct causal attributions could not be made.