Leading Through Rapid Change: A PRISMA-Informed Architecture of Adaptive Judgment

Abstract

This conceptual article develops Ethical Adaptive Complexity Leadership (EACL) through a PRISMA-informed conceptual integration of research on complexity leadership, sensemaking, adaptive leadership, systems thinking, judgment under uncertainty, resilience, and AI-augmented decision-making. It addresses a judgment breakpoint that arises when volatility, epistemic overload, fragmented authority, stakeholder simultaneity, and nonlinear consequences make conventional decision assumptions unreliable. EACL specifies five mutually reinforcing mechanisms: interpretive praxis, moral discernment, adaptive judgment, complexity navigation, and relational ethics, linked through a recursive cycle of interpretation, action, feedback, drift detection, and recalibration. The article distinguishes activation conditions from mechanisms and outcomes, grounds the architecture empirically in prior phenomenological critical-incident research, and states falsifiable hypotheses with candidate measures. The contribution is a transparent, testable architecture for preserving decision defensibility while leaders act under unstable evidence. Applications include crisis leadership, healthcare, public governance, and high- reliability systems.