Complexity theory is generating increasing interest amongst strategic thinkers. This fascinating book covers issues such as predictability, creativity and relationships as it considers how complexity, and its central principles of emergence and self-organization, are being used to understand organizations. The book: introduces the variety of views put forward by different writers on complexity and management outlines and critiques the way that complexity theory is frequently interpreted purely in the context of systems thinking draws a new perspective on using complexity sciences to understand organizational stability and change by focusing on the emergence of novelty and creativity in the course of everyday processes calls for a radical re-examination of management thinking. Timely and controversial, Complexity and Management is essential reading for anyone interested in strategy, systems thinking, organization and management theory, and organizational change.
Author(s): Ralph D. Stacey, Douglas Griffin, Patricia Shaw
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2000
Language: English
Pages: 241
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
Series preface......Page 10
Introduction: getting things done in organizations......Page 12
~Getting things done, anyway~......Page 14
Ways of thinking......Page 17
Outline of the book......Page 20
The age-old question of stability and change......Page 23
The claims of management complexity writers......Page 28
Moving toward a knowable future......Page 32
Human freedom and the scientific method......Page 33
The importance of Kant's contribution......Page 36
Conclusion......Page 40
Moving toward an unknowable future......Page 41
Chance and adaptation......Page 50
Alternatives to some of Darwin's views......Page 52
Darwin and the neo-Darwinian synthesis......Page 55
Five ways of understanding stability and change......Page 60
Conclusion......Page 62
Limits of systems thinking: focusing on knowable futures......Page 67
Dealing with human participation and freedom......Page 69
Scientific management: ignoring interaction......Page 72
Systems thinking: splitting choice and interaction......Page 75
Conclusion......Page 93
How the complexity sciences deal with the future......Page 96
Chaos theory: unfolding an enfolded future......Page 97
Chaos theory as Formative Teleology......Page 100
Dissipative structure theory: constructing an unknowable future......Page 103
Conclusion......Page 114
Complexity and the emergence of novelty......Page 117
Review of the management complexity writers' claim......Page 130
Conclusion: the challenge......Page 134
Differing views on complexity in organizations......Page 138
Complexity and the dynamics of industries: limits to control and the origins of novelty......Page 141
Marion's analysis of causality in complex systems......Page 149
Complexity and the dynamics of organizations: sustaining the illusion of control......Page 152
Conclusion......Page 165
Complexity and human action......Page 168
Human action in the dominant management discourse: focusing on the individual......Page 169
Human action in complexity: retaining the individual focus......Page 174
Transformation and human action: focusing on relationship and participation......Page 182
Conclusion......Page 192
Getting things done in organizations: from systems to complex responsive processes......Page 194
Key elements of our project......Page 197
The books in this series......Page 204
Appendix 1: The origins of Western notions of causality......Page 206
Appendix 2: Complexity sciences as sources of analogy......Page 210
Appendix 3: The movement of our thought......Page 218
Bibliography......Page 225
Index......Page 232
