Call for paper: Leadership at the Borders: Reimagining Organizational Development Amid Disrupted Context

Leadership at the Borders: Reimagining Organizational Development Amid Disrupted Context

In an increasingly interconnected yet fragmented world, the practice of leadership and the development of organizations are being redefined by the dynamic and often disorienting nature of borders. These borders—conceptual, cultural, technological, institutional, and geopolitical—are no longer peripheral to the functioning of organizations; they are central to the conditions under which change unfolds and leadership is exercised. As institutions face compounding pressures from climate change, digital transformation, global conflict, and rising social inequalities, traditional assumptions about leadership and development are being disrupted, and new pathways are urgently required.

The notion of “borders” takes on multiple dimensions in today’s organizational landscape. Hybrid work dissolves the physical boundaries of the office while generating new tensions between visibility, productivity, and belonging. Digital infrastructures expand the capacity for cross-border collaboration yet expose organizations to vulnerabilities in cybersecurity, data ethics, and algorithmic inequality. Meanwhile, leadership within multicultural and transnational environments requires navigation across cultural and normative frontiers, demanding a shift from control to coordination, from authority to adaptability, and from hierarchy to networked influence.

This Special Issue is motivated by the need to revisit and reimagine leadership and organizational development in light of these evolving and often contested boundaries. We argue that leading and developing organizations “at the borders” is not a metaphorical flourish but a concrete reality in contemporary practice. The pandemic, geopolitical upheaval, and planetary emergencies have all shown that borders are simultaneously sites of breakdown and breakthrough—places where power is contested, values are negotiated, and transformative possibilities emerge.

In such contexts, the capacity for leadership to generate inclusive, resilient, and ethically grounded change becomes a defining challenge. This raises urgent questions for scholars and practitioners: How do leaders enact change across uncertain terrains where norms, roles, and identities are fluid? What forms of development are required for organizations to remain adaptive, yet anchored in purpose and integrity? How do emerging technologies and work arrangements reshape leadership boundaries, and with what implications for equity and wellbeing?

Aligned with the Leadership & Organization Development Journal’s mission to advance knowledge in leadership theory, practice, and development, this Special Issue offers a platform for interdisciplinary inquiry, critical reflection, and empirical engagement. It invites researchers to explore how borders shape, constrain, and enable leadership; how organizational development practices respond to disruption and diversity; and how new paradigms of influence, identity, and change might be constructed from the margins inward.

Ultimately, we seek contributions that do not merely adapt existing models to new conditions, but that reimagine what leadership and development can and should be in an age defined by fluid boundaries, systemic risk, and radical interdependence.

List of topic areas

Leadership across conceptual, institutional, and technological boundaries.
Organizational development in complex adaptive systems.
Ethics, inclusion, and power in leadership and change.
Hybrid work, digital infrastructures, and redefined organizational boundaries.
Leadership in multicultural, transnational, or liminal contexts.
Algorithmic governance, data ethics, and digital inequality in leadership.
Transformative responses to climate change, global conflict, and social disruption.
Networked influence and post-hierarchical leadership models.
Empirical studies of leadership in fragile, transitional, or marginalized environments.
Organizational identity, resilience, and purpose in uncertain contexts.
Leadership and organizational change in response to systemic risk.
AI, metaverse, and emerging technologies as new leadership frontiers.
Critiques of managerialism and individual-centric leadership paradigms.
Leadership discourses and metaphors in post-pandemic organizational life.
Leadership and OD as socially embedded, ethically negotiated practices.
Reconstruction of leadership roles through postcolonial, feminist, or critical theory lenses.
Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives on leading at borders.
Voice and representation of under-represented groups in leadership research and practice.
Leadership learning, reflexivity, and feedback mechanisms in turbulent environments.
Reframing OD as a participatory, values-driven, iterative process.

Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available here.

Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see here.

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to ““Please select the issue you are submitting to”.

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.