Abstract
Although systems scientists have railed against the classical leadership models for years, they continue to pervade academic textbooks and life in many organizations. This paper adds to that critique by suggesting that the nature of leadership is quite different in highly turbulent environments. In such settings, the context of management becomes more significant than the management functions. An extensive study was conducted in six major organizations in Bogota, Colombia. This paper uses that study as a backdrop from which to discuss some of the challenges of studying leadership systemically. Complications discussed include the difficulty of using language, oral or written, which is by definition linear. Secondly, people have been found to make the past much more linear than it occurred when they are thinking retrospectively. Finally, although we recommend that the leader him or herself must be involved in the research process, issues of subjectivity and reflexivity become more significant