Leadership and Governance in Complex Learning Systems: Risk, Knowledge and Entrepreneurship

Call for Papers

Leadership and Governance in Complex Learning Systems: Risk, Knowledge and Entrepreneurship

JOURNAL NAME: Kybernetes

PUBLISHER: Emerald Publishing

SUBMISSIONS OPEN: 26 January 2026

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 26 December 2026

About This Special Issue

Knowledge-intensive organisations — including universities, research institutes, health and care systems, professional service firms, and public agencies — are increasingly required to operate under conditions of profound and escalating complexity. These institutions face simultaneous pressures arising from resource constraints, digitalisation, accountability regimes, geopolitical volatility, and expanding societal expectations regarding impact, innovation, and public value.

While existing research has documented these challenges, much of this work remains fragmented by disciplinary boundaries and often adopts instrumental rather than systemic framings. As a result, the deeper organisational dynamics through which knowledge-intensive institutions observe, interpret, and respond to complexity remain insufficiently theorised.

This special issue seeks to address that gap by advancing a systems-theoretical understanding of leadership and governance in knowledge-intensive organisations conceptualised as complex learning systems. It brings together scholarly conversations that are typically treated in isolation — leadership and governance, risk and resilience, knowledge and learning, entrepreneurship and innovation — within an integrated cybernetic framework. Rather than centring on any single technology, sector, or managerial tool, the special issue prioritises the underlying systemic processes that cut across organisational contexts: how leaders attend to signals, how risk is framed and escalated, how knowledge is created and institutionalised, and how entrepreneurial activity emerges within and against existing structures.

A distinctive feature of this special issue is its emphasis on second-order and reflexive inquiry. Contributors are invited to explore how leadership and governance systems observe and redesign themselves, how organisational actors interpret their environments, and how learning architectures evolve in response to shifting constraints and opportunities.

This special issue aligns with several UN Sustainable Development Goals including SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions), and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).

Scope & Theme Areas

We invite submissions addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Leadership and Governance as Systemic Architectures — Observation, decision, and learning as interconnected systemic processes in knowledge-intensive organisations

• Enterprise-Wide Risk, Knowledge and Entrepreneurship — These as interconnected cybernetic processes within complex learning systems

• Cross-Sector Analyses — Universities, health systems, research institutes, public agencies, and professional service firms examined as complex learning systems

• Reflexive and Second-Order Perspectives — How organisations construct and revise their own governance arrangements through reflexive inquiry

• Theory-as-Method Applications — Using cybernetics, systems thinking, or complexity frameworks analytically rather than metaphorically

Guest Editors

Dr Enis Elezi University of Westminster, UK ✉️ e.elezi@westminster.ac.uk

Dr Christopher J. Bamber

Dr Alireza Nazarian

Dr Gentjan Çera

Key Deadlines & Dates

Submission Guidelines

How to submit: Manuscripts must be submitted via ScholarOne Manuscripts at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/kyb strictly following the journal's author guidelines.

Selection step: Authors must select the special issue title from the drop-down menu at the appropriate submission step — in response to "Please select the issue you are submitting to."

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

Enquiries: For inquiries or to discuss potential submissions, contact the guest editors at e.elezi@westminster.ac.uk

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