ABSTRACT
The following chapter conceptualizes the way in which leaders go through the process of gathering information to resolve problems. Viewing this process as a multilevel and iterative leadership activity, it is discussed as a function of the environment, available sources of information, sensemaking, and problem-solving demands. The problem-solving process begins with information gathering prompted by leader uncertainty. Environmental conditions that cause a leader to experience uncertainty are examined (novelty, ambiguity, complexity, volatility, multiplicity, and fragmentation), as well as the information -gathering strategies these conditions prompt (pattern recognition, compartmentalizing, analogizing, experimentation, ad hoc, and idiosyncratic). Information sources are also considered vis-à-vis different strategies for making use of them.
