Conceptual Model of Communicative Leadership through the Leader's Internal Transformation
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Communicative leadership lacks a consolidated scholarly definition despite its growing presence in organizational literature. This reflection article aims to theoretically delimit the concept of communicative leadership through a critical analysis of the main traditions converging in its study, classical and contemporary leadership theories, psychological foundations, communication theories, and organizational communication, and to identify the theoretical-methodological gap that underpins the IMPACTA System proposal. A narrative-comparative documentary review was conducted using Scopus, SciELO, Redalyc, Dialnet, and Google Scholar, applying inclusion criteria based on thematic relevance and verifiable academic support. A total of 52 sources were reviewed, of which 47 were incorporated into the analysis. Results show that no reviewed model explicitly integrates the leader's internal transformation as an antecedent of observable communicative behavior, nor proposes a quantitatively validated measurement instrument. From this gap, the article proposes the IMPACTA System, a conceptual framework articulating five dimensions: Awareness, Trust, Coherence, Influence, and Impact, grounded in the psychology of self-efficacy, congruence, and emotional intelligence, alongside an original operational definition of the construct. It is concluded that communicative leadership can be defined as a leader's capacity to mobilize and influence others through genuine and sustained communicative behaviors, whose authenticity depends on a prior internal transformation across those five dimensions. Validation of the Communicative Leadership Index (CLI) constitutes the most immediate future research agenda.
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