11068: Navigating Neurodiversity in the Leadership Relationship: An Integrative Review and Research Agenda (session 25894)

Despite clear imperatives for neurodiversity inclusive leadership in contemporary organizations, this interdisciplinary research field lacks comprehensive understanding and clear conceptualization of leadership in the context of neurodiversity. This limits not only theoretical, but also, much-needed practical contributions. In response to this pressing need, we present a novel interdisciplinary integrative systematic review of 43 articles, from across 14 research disciplines, examining leadership within dyads of neurodivergent followers and neurotypical leaders. We identify three key themes: Reciprocal Communication (including double-empathy problems/“disjuncture[s] in reciprocity” (Milton 2012, p.884); Consequences of Communication, and Multi-level Contextual Influences on Reciprocal Leader-Follower Communication Practices. Next, we bring theoretical integration to this emergent field by synthesizing our findings with two complementary perspectives that emerged directly from our review: double-empathy and relational leadership. We provide two significant contributions. Firstly, we propose a novel dynamic theoretical framework of leadership processes within neurodivergent follower–neurotypical leader dyads, which conceptualizes how disjunctures in reciprocity (double-empathy problems) are constructed, or circumvented, via relational leadership dialogic communication or ‘heroic’ leadership monologic communication processes, respectively. Secondly, we present an innovative future research agenda that contains key, evidence-informed, theoretical and methodological recommendations for advancing both scholarship, and practice, regarding leadership in the context of neurodiversity.

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