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Application of Complexity Theory to Organization Science
Abstract
This special issue originated with the 1996 Organization Science Winter Conference (OSWC), which set out to explore the implications of the science of complexity for the field of organization studies. Following the OSWC, a formal program organized by the Organization Science section of INFORMS took place in Atlanta. The vast potential for complexity theory to inform and transform research in organization studies became evident from the discussions of 22 papers that were presented at that meeting. In response to the call for papers issued after the Atlanta meeting, 56 papers were submitted to Organization Science, of which seven make up this issue.
Interest in complexity has grown dramatically since the 1996 OSWC first explored this idea. The purpose of this special issue is not to declare that a new era in organization studies and strategic management is at hand, but to explore the boundaries and links between the science of complexity—with its origin in evolution and biology—and the field of strategy and organization. The issue explores the implications of complexity research for organization studies in the context of new ways of modeling dynamic, nonlinear complex systems for advancing theoretical and empirical research in organization studies (e.g., theorizing within coevolutionary frameworks, decomposition of nested phenomena, multidirectional causalities).
... These structures tend to be comparatively flat, with few levels, and may be organized around specific needs rather than functions (A. Lewin, 1999). Leaders should encourage people to be involved in creating new ways of organizing to solve problems and accomplish tasks. ...
... The rich connections and changing patterns of interactions can lead to the evolution of more robust, adaptable, and successful organizations (A. Lewin, 1999). ...
... these situations further this sense of connection by investing their time and effort to build commitment to the vision and ensure that people feel valued through mutual, connected relationships (A. Lewin, 1999). ...
This article presents an overview of the development and components of complexity theory and its application to human systems. Implications for managing organizations derived from complexity science are also delineated. Examples of planned structural and cultural changes in a communications company are described and analyzed from a complexity perspective. Finally, the current status and future implications of applying complexity theory as a paradigm for managing contemporary organizations are addressed.
... Complex adaptive system (CAS) theory (Anderson, 1999;Lewin, 1999) may be useful for shedding light on the conceptualization of EEs and addressing challenges related to comprehending the complexity nature of an EE (i.e., multicausality, discontinuity, and multidimensionality) for several reasons. First, as a subset of system and chaos theory, CAS theory is advantageous for explaining how complex causes can produce simple effects or how simple rules can have unpredictable consequences (Anderson, 1999), which is relevant to phenomena such as EEs (Ritala & Gustafsson, 2018). ...
Viable entrepreneurship ecosystems (EEs), which provide sustainable competitive advantages to innovative regions, have become increasingly important for producing high-impact entrepreneurial firms. However, little is known about the complexity nature that viable EEs uncover under specific regional entrepreneurial contexts. By integrating the EE literature and complex adaptive system (CAS) theory, we conducted a case study on the Zhongguancun EE in China. We demonstrate six interrelated complexity properties of a viable EE: a large number of self-organized agents, nonlinear interactions, (in)sensitivity to initial conditions, adaptation to the environment, emergence of successful entrepreneurial firms, and coevolution. Moreover, the integration of these six complexity properties offers an overarching understanding of how the Zhongguancun EE maintained its viability over time. We contribute to the EE literature by developing a more nuanced complexity-based understanding of a viable EE and extend CAS theory at the ecosystem level by highlighting an EE's adaptive process to maintain its viability.
... Second, in terms of the reliability of the method and statistics, the synergetics has described and explained the interaction among variables in accordance with the mathematical logic, and the referred index indicators are all from public real data (Morel and Ramanujam, 1999), which can not only eliminate subjective mistakes, but avoid sample defects or low credibility caused by data from questionnaire, and the corresponding conclusions are more reliable (Amaral and Uzzi, 2007;Cheng et al., 2009;Haken and Knyazeva, 2000). Third, in terms of the practical value, the theory and method of synergetics are able to transform the original complex economic system into an intuitive concept (Weidlich, 1991), and it has overcome the theoretical closure and expression defects caused by simple formal logic and vocabularies, and by analyzing the interaction among internal variables (Corning, 1995), it has defined the complex principles of the dynamic system evolution completely and profoundly (Lewin, 1999). Also, it has broadened the meaning space provided by scientific theory, which can be of great value to explain specific problems in the field of management (Chiva et al., 2010); Fourth, in terms of the application, the research method of the synergetics has become an important way to study the non-linearity and complexity of the subjects in the field of analyzing economy and management (Birkinshaw et al., 2008;Karmeshu and Jain, 2003;Dopfer, 1991), such as collaborative evolution and innovation in the management theory (Broekstra, 2002;Koza and Lewin, 1998), knowledge creation and knowledge flow in the knowledge management (Laihonen, 2006;Nonaka, 1994), and alliance self-organized emergence in the strategic management (Thietart, 2016), which are all defined and explained by the thought of synergetics. ...
In terms of the research content, previous studies did not analyze influences of interactions among different knowledge behaviors on collaborative innovation in the knowledge-intensive competitive alliance. Meanwhile, they overlooked exploring the external control mechanism together with internal interaction mechanism. In terms of the research method, previous studies failed to deal with challenges brought by collaborative innovation complexity. In order to address these gaps, different knowledge behaviors that influence collaborative innovation are identified as knowledge creation, knowledge transaction and knowledge application. The theory and method of synergetics, which is capable of explaining collaborative innovation complexity, is introduced to establish a dynamic collaborative innovation evolution model. Taking high-end medical device knowledge-intensive competitive alliances in China, Korea and Germany as empirical research subjects, we reveal the collaborative innovation principles in the knowledge-intensive competitive alliance by analyzing external control mechanism (resource input mechanism) and internal interaction mechanism (interactions among different knowledge behaviors). Results showed that: I) resource input mechanism, the most important external control mechanism, is able to alter collaborative innovation period. II) in the process of collaborative innovation, there is a highly non-linear positive correlation between knowledge creation and knowledge application, but the collaborative innovation does not depend on knowledge transaction. III) no matter what the role of resource input mechanism is, the collaborative innovation in knowledge-intensive competitive alliance is able to enter into a new stability spontaneously under interactions among different knowledge behaviors. With this research, this study can promote studies on collaborative innovation in the knowledge-intensive competitive alliance, provide new perspectives and methods for researchers, and offer important implications for managers to set strategies.
... The post-industrial form can also be traced, more generally, to other literatures concerned with emergence, knowledge and learning. The concept of learning, flexible organizations composed of small, autonomous units eschewing traditional hierarchical structures is akin to the idea of firms and their governance as complex adaptive systems (CASs) (Lewin 1999; Scherpereel 2008). Though CASs are constantly changing and adapting, they are not random and simply reactive, but involve agency, planning, increasing knowledge, and self-organization (Anderson 1999). ...
A number of organizational scholars have suggested that to compete in a “post-industrial” world firms must adopt specific structures and approaches to managing. In this article, we explore the why of post-industrial forms, as opposed to the what. Often work in this literature speaks as though in the future only a post-industrial form will allow firms to compete successfully. We argue instead that adoption of a post-industrial form is a contingency: some firms have to operate in this fashion, some firms may want to, and some firms never will adopt a post-industrial form. Based on Thompson’s (Organizations in action, Transaction, New Brunswick, 1967) conception of production processes, we suggest factors that, if present, require firms to be post-industrial as well as strategies that make them want to adopt this relatively new form.
... We argue that a useful approach towards a deeper understanding can be to conceive system-wide CDs as CASs, as already suggested in terms of tourism (Arnaboldi & Spiller, 2011;Farrell & Twining-Ward, 2004). From an organizational point of view, complexity is definitely not a management fad and fashion, a mere metaphor or methodology, but a deeper perception of reality (Lewin, 1999). Organizations are classically seen as purpose-driven entities with a structural form, exhibiting a certain degree of order and determinism. ...
Cultural districts are becoming an important field of study to promote a growing number of initiatives for local development. Despite substantial research in this field, knowledge gaps remain, especially with regard to initiatives at supra-urban level. Many policy-makers, funding agencies, local administrators and managers still face important design issues. This paper contributes to the developing body of theory on cultural districts in two ways. Firstly, focusing on concepts from complexity theory, it expands the debate on the conception of cultural districts as complex adaptive systems. Secondly, it highlights the dysfunctional tensions that can arise from conflicting ways of conceiving organizations, organizing and designing among ‘promoters’ and designers. We have been involved for three years in a large project aimed at designing a wide supra-urban cultural district in Italy, financed by a major banking foundation. Adopting an organizational perspective and through participative action research, we develop an explorative case study. Our core argument is that a linear, predictable and deterministic approach to analysis and design presents many limitations for such complex projects, offering learning opportunities from the design experience.
... As stated by Lewin (1999), on a special issue of the Organization Science periodical dedicated to address "the implications of complexity research for organization studies in the context of new ways of modeling dynamic, nonlinear complex systems for advancing theoretical and empirical research in organization studies (e.g., theorizing within co-evolutionary frameworks, decomposition of nested phenomena, multidirectional causalities)", the new management perspective "requires internal processes as self-generated sources of dissipative energy, such as improvisation, product champions and emergent strategies". Focusing on such a co-evolutionary framework to study innovation phenomena, we can follow a similar approach to draw arbitrary and naturally porous frontiers to divide the sub-fields that deal with innovation, always having in mind that innovation and technology are objectively social phenomena. ...
... Beginning with Hall (1962) and Woodward (1965) and expanded on by Hage and Aiken (1967), Fredrickson (1986), Alter and Hage (1993), Anderson (1999), Lewin (1999) ...
ABSTRACT Organizational decline prompts leaders to downsize, reducing the size of the workforce in an attempt to cut costs. This paper discusses some of the dangers of downsizing in which organizations experience an unanticipated and unwanted loss of core competencies. An alternative to downsizing is offered, showing how organizations can ‘de-develop’ by slowly and deliberately moving to a lower order of organized complexity, retaining essential core competencies and supporting functions. To produce a ‘soft-landing’ that preserves core competencies, a new identity is forged and connections to the new identity are uncovered. The connections point out what must be preserved, such as a crucial channel for key products, for the new identity to survive and flourish. The de-developed organization preserves customers, products, markets, channels, revenue sources, alliances, skilled people, ways to organize, and/or image crucial to the new strategic identity before letting go of the remaining customers, products, etc. The paper identifies conditions under which de-development can be desirable and suggests a ‘devolutionary’ process that points out some of the key moves needed to reduce organized complexity and realize a soft landing.
... Thus the relationship between intended and emergent rules is not straightforward not least because, for some, intention is itself an emergent process (e.g. Joas, 1996). ...
Organization theorists have begun to draw on developments in complexity theory to redirect the literature on organizational transformation and strategic change towards notions of emergence. Useful contributions have been offered on the ways in which emergent order arises from the repeated application of simple sets of order generating rules in so called complex adaptive systems. This paper explores the nature of such (organizational) order generating rules and the ways in which they shape transformation processes. The authors adopt a mode 2 approach, operating at the interface of organization science and design methodology. First, a complexity based framework for organizational change is described, suggesting that transformation can be viewed as an emergent process, accessed and influenced through three interacting gateways – order generating rules, far-from-equilibrium conditions and feedback processes. This framework is used to examine two cases of organizational change. The paper then proceeds to compare these cases and theorize about the nature of rules. Finally, rules are considered in terms of how they arise as well as their objects, and a number of propositions for further research are suggested.
Purpose
The growing interest on ecosystems on both managerial and academic side reflects a vibrant field of study, nevertheless, the subject is very heterogeneous and in particular concerning a particular form of ecosystems: collaborative ecosystems, the purpose of this study is to shed light on these.
Design/methodology/approach
The definition gap existent and the multiplicity of fields and composite studies on collaborative ecosystems have made it necessary to conduct a systematic literature review of the phenomenon, a bibliometric analysis and content analysis.
Findings
The research offers an overview of the phenomenon, three main cluster categories emerged: ecosystem, competition and open innovation; this cluster offers a comprehensive schematization of the research topics.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations of this research are that the investigation has been confined to specific keywords related to collaborative ecosystems that led to a strict selection of papers to be analyzed and in having confined the investigation to publications in the managerial area. Further research will be able to expand the selection of keywords or use more strings and proceed to a comparative analysis of results. Another limitation is the small number of databases assessed (only Scopus and Web of Science) and have confined the analysis to specific clusters that emerged from the quantitative analysis of papers.
Practical implications
By proposing a taxonomy of collaborative ecosystems, the paper highlights what solutions and architectures an ecosystem manager must consider when developing collaborative ecosystems, what factors he or she must pay attention to in order to ensure their development and survival, and what elements determine the development of an ecosystem, in particular, the management of innovation and knowledge and the scarcity of resources in a hyper-competitive environment.
Originality/value
A combination of research methods was used to identify the intellectual structure of collaborative ecosystems. In addition, we propose a taxonomy for collaborative ecosystems, opening the study to new lines of investigation and providing a new research agenda.
There is a revolution in the physical sciences with applying new theories that emphasize holism, uncertainty, and nonlinearity and that de-emphasize reductionism, predictability and linearity. The interest is growing in applying these theories to the study of organizations, including public organizations. The classic model of the organization as a machine has long since been discredited, but the models that have replaced this metaphor have been less than satisfactory. The basic principles of complexity theory are explained using organizations as examples. Complexity theory suggests that organizational managers promote bringing their organizations to the “edge of chaos” rather than troubleshooting, to trust workers to self-organize to solve problems, to encourage rather than banish informal communications networks, to “go with the flow” rather than script procedures, to build in some redundancy and slack resources, and to induce a healthy level of tension and anxiety in the organization to promote creativity and maximize organizational effectiveness.
Through establishing ecosystems around core technologies or products and fostering growth through investments in startups, internet platform companies make substantial contributions to the global economy. These investments often involve corporate venture capital (CVC) initiatives that support value creation. Firms must, therefore, account for the objectives of these initiatives, which aim to ensure value creation for business ecosystems, particularly in emerging markets such as China. This study presents a product-platform-ecosystem model derived from a case study of Tencent, a leading Chinese internet platform company. It analyzes seven strategic objectives of Tencent's venture capital activities that directly influence value creation in its business ecosystem. The analysis reveals how the strategic objectives underpinning CVC activities contribute to the value creation of platform ecosystems. The proposed value creation paradigm for internet platform ecosystems provides new insights into this rapidly growing market and offers guidelines for business managers and policymakers.
People matter. Relationships matter. By developing talent, you are creating conditions that foster growth, both personal growth and professional growth. When you empower people, you are creating conditions that foster growth. People who feel empowered feel trusted. People who feel trusted feel empowered. And people who are trusted and empowered will make things happen.
Vignettes from leaders at Centene, Nokia, Amazon, UScellular, and Oracle illustrate the leadership challenges that come with developing talent.
Motivated individuals are key to success. You as the leader motivate and inspire individuals from the day they join your team to the day they leave. You motivate and inspire the people on your team by teaching, sharing, empowering, challenging, trusting, holding accountable, rewarding, and developing.
Leadership is a social construct. It is conjunction, processual, and generative. It is best practiced with a keen eye and a kind heart.
Delivering valuable software frequently is the name of the game. Businesspeople and developers must be aligned on the objectives of the project. And they must be aligned on the deliverables due at each stage of the project. Priorities and deliverables can change, and this makes daily connection and daily alignment that much more important. When businesspeople and developers work together daily—when they commit to generative dialogue and meaningful progress—they create the products and solutions that matter most to their customer.
Vignettes from leaders at Oracle, UScellular, and Amazon illustrate these leadership challenges.
To ensure the development team makes progress every day, you as the leader must connect the businesspeople with your developers. Your team must commit to generative dialogue. This dialogue will help ensure that your team gains insight from the businesspeople. The questions your team asks in this dialogue help achieve clarity. The team reaches alignment. The teams jointly prioritize and reprioritize as customer needs evolve and as the marketplace evolves.
With insight, clarity, alignment, and prioritization, the team is positioned to make meaningful progress toward delivering valuable software quickly.
Although ‘VUCA’ is not a new term, the features of the world it describes, a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment, have never been more valid. The VUCA world has become the new reality for business, specifically for hospitality and tourism organizations that are more vulnerable than any other sector due to the historically-recognized turbulent environment in which they operate. In this book, the authors present unique factors that make hospitality and tourism organizations resilient in the VUCA world. With contacts at the center of their hospitality and tourism organizational resilience model, the organizational and psychological perspectives are also incorporated. This innovative volume tests the model of organizational resilience in hospitality and tourism organizations. The study identifies and validates organizational and individual factors that create a resilient organization in the hospitality and tourism sector. It will be of interest to researchers, academics, practitioners, and advanced students in the fields of organizational studies, strategic management, hospitality, and tourism management.
Project sponsors have sought to develop the necessary competence to address various challenges they face during project development, implementation, and exploitation by employing different initiatives including the engagement and use of external consultants. However, doing so is associated with a number of consequences, including a significant risk of exacerbating project complexities. With this in mind, we set out in this article to examine the salient differences in the key project complexities between projects engaging consultants and those not engaging consultants. Data are obtained from 146 project management practitioners engaged in projects in Canada and the USA. Data analysis is undertaken using three-way multidimensional scaling. Findings as relates to the key complexities associated with information systems projects, points to the manifestation of six broad dimensions of complexity namely 1) “Variety,” 2) “Control,” 3) “Criticality,” 4) “Scope and repetition,” 5) “Information,” and 6) “Dependence.” As relates to how consultant engagement changes the salience of these key project complexities, we find that consultant engagement leads to more varied and stronger structural complexity and higher salience of interpersonal and organizational complexity.
Over the last decade, interoperability appeared as a key enabler towards unlocking the full potential of enterprises, products, processes, and systems. With methods to support their lifecycle, contributing towards removing communication barriers, and fostering a new-networked business culture in industrial domains, Enterprise Interoperability (EI) requires tangible scientific foundations. This chapter recognizes that, in terms of content, any scientific field exists in an ecosystem of neighboring domains and presents a methodology to identify EI’s relationship with its neighbors, thus supporting the foundations of EI Science Base (EISB). It can be agreed that formalisms like logic and mathematics are an integrant part of every science, but others also share relationships such as application fields’ boundaries, methodologies, techniques, or even tools. With the support of the European Commission, through the Future Internet and Enterprise Systems (FInES) cluster of research projects, the authors have initiated an analysis of comprehensive domains (e.g. complexity and software).
The purpose of this chapter is to permeate the alignment area from the ADT perspective. In doing so I will focus on the alignment of B and K strategies, since this can be apprehended as a wider scope than the more tangible alignment of, say B strategies and IT strategies. The reason is that knowledge according to ADT is directly related to the work object of the activity domain. It is in the activity domain that capabilities of both humans and mediational means are enacted, and mediational means are, among other things, ISs and IT. Thus, business strategies and IS/IT cannot be directly aligned since that would “short-cut” the enactment process in the activity domain.
Complex systems theory (e.g. Bar-Yam, 1997) is a rich and vital research area that has a huge potential for organizational research (Lewin, 1999). In particular, the study of complex adaptive systems (CASs) provides many insightful results concerning the adaptability and strategic management of organizations in turbulent environments (ibid). In the following, I will take this characterization of CASs as a starting point for exploring possible connections between CAS and ADT. This is done against the background of the previously reported complexity inherent in both telecom systems and projects developing these systems.
Support systems for early venturing efforts need to be harmonious with the emergent nature of those efforts. With current literature treating the conceptions of new ventures as exogenous, there has been limited focus on the transition of venturing efforts from nebulous, open-ended, and accidental toward becoming scalable, focused, and deliberate. We develop a dynamic model for organizing support systems for the early phases of new-venture creation, where scattered ideas evolve into venture concepts as tokens, frames, and premises for further action. By viewing venturing efforts and opportunities as emergent and drawing on the literature on complexity and organizational space, we propose openness, self-selection, visibility, and connectivity as the defining characteristics for organizing support systems. In contrast to literature's predominant focus on a predictive, linear approach, we expand the theoretical scope of support systems to include organizing that is more attuned to the uncertain and nonlinear nature of new venture creation that they support. Our work has broader implications for organizing uncertain early-phase development processes.
Context and intelligence are two concepts that when combined create unique insight relative to leadership in complex and ambiguous settings. Contextual intelligence is described as the ability to recognize patterns of interrelated artifacts inherent in events or circumstances, which result in intentional behaviors that facilitate influence. This chapter is divided into sections that introduce the concept of contextual intelligence as a framework rooted in three core concepts. Those concepts include understanding non-Newtonian thinking, synchronicity, and tacit knowledge. Following a discussion of these core concepts, the model is expanded to include three-dimensional (3D) thinking, which requires the practical application of hindsight, insight, and foresight through the lenses of the three core concepts. The chapter concludes with a diagram of the contextual intelligence circumplex and a breakdown and description of 12 meta-competencies (behaviors) associated with contextual intelligence.
Complexity theory argues for bounded instability to allow organizations to run operations at a regular speed while also allowing them to explore innovations at a faster speed in support of digital transformation. HeXie management theory uses a mix of systems engineering and holism to argue for a theme around which empowered employees can explore and couple the dividends from such explorations to the organizational vision and mission. Authors integrate these two theories and multiple leadership processes (administrative, enabling, and adaptive) around four guiding principles: alignment around theme, dynamism of employees, transitiveness of dividends, and adaptiveness to support organizational growth and capacity building. These principles are used to discuss how digital leadership has guided healthcare transformation both inside and outside a hospital in multiple use cases, thus providing insight for thought leadership in digital health.
Strategic management is a system of continual disequilibrium, with firms in a continual struggle for competitive advantage and relative fitness. Models that are dynamic in nature are required if we are to really understand the complex notion of sustainable competitive advantage. New tools are required to tackle challenges of how firms should compete in environments characterized by both exogeneous shocks and intense endogenous competition. Agent-based modelling of firms’ strategies offers an alternative analytical approach, where individual firm or component parts of a firm are modelled, each with their own strategy. Where traditional models can assume homogeneity of actors, agent-based models simulate each firm individually. This allows experimentation of strategic moves, which is particularly important where reactions to strategic moves are non-trivial. This Element introduces agent-based models and their use within management, reviews the influential NK suite of models, and offers an agenda for the development of agent-based models in strategic management.
The 21st century public organization is faced with complex problems, informed stakeholders, and information flows, which necessitate a corresponding open system view of leadership. The traditional notions of public administration and new public management had been structured by strict bureaucratic rules and managerial flexibility, respectively. This paper begins by theorizing two hypothetical constructs (helicopter and deadbeat leadership), which engage in extreme micromanagement/surveillance and negligence/indifference, respectively. Those form basis for designing an optimal (transdisciplinary) leadership, which forges synergistic link between leaders, subordinates, and external actors in codesigning objectives and strategies to address societal problems. Strategies to promote transdisciplinary leadership are discussed.
The concept of governance is widely employed in various field of studies. Governance also commonly employed to characterize institutions both in public sector institutions and private domains, describe both formal and informal organizations, and define both international and local networks. In the field of public administration, the concept of governance has been explored in last three decades. The usage of the word of governance could be in diverse ways and has various meanings which seems that governance is tending to be applied as rhetorical reasons rather than theoretical argumentations. This review article provides two philosophical approaches to understand governance concept in public administration study. They are pragmatic philosophy and phenomenology philosophy. Both philosophical approaches provide dynamic and complex issues that be considering by public administration scholars in future research agendas.
The present article develops an argument that conceptualizing the customer journey as a complex system provides both a systematic portrayal of the complex and holistic nature of customer experience and an opportunity to serve as an integrative framework for differing definitions in the service literature. A comprehensive literature review reflecting the contemporary understanding of the concept of customer journey is presented. Theoretical and practical implications of adopting a complexity theory-based stance in customer experience research are discussed under five fundamental tenets of complexity theory.
Over the last decade, interoperability appeared as a key enabler towards unlocking the full potential of enterprises, products, processes, and systems. With methods to support their lifecycle, contributing towards removing communication barriers, and fostering a new-networked business culture in industrial domains, Enterprise Interoperability (EI) requires tangible scientific foundations. This chapter recognizes that, in terms of content, any scientific field exists in an ecosystem of neighboring domains and presents a methodology to identify EI’s relationship with its neighbors, thus supporting the foundations of EI Science Base (EISB). It can be agreed that formalisms like logic and mathematics are an integrant part of every science, but others also share relationships such as application fields’ boundaries, methodologies, techniques, or even tools. With the support of the European Commission, through the Future Internet and Enterprise Systems (FInES) cluster of research projects, the authors have initiated an analysis of comprehensive domains (e.g. complexity and software).
In this chapter, the analysis interprets the thought of Barnard on the management process. The author’s approach is systemic: he uses the concept of system as the basis of development for his management theory. Apart from some differences in terminology, the management functions adopted by Barnard are very similar in substance to those recurrent in the modern theory of management; on this issue, the author seems a precursor of subsequent theoretical developments. What is really original in his theoretical construction is the relationship between the set of management functions (management process) and the function of leadership.
With the dawn of the internet, mobile technology, cloud computing etc. our socio-technical environment has become ever more intertwined and hyper-complex. The field of complexity management tries to devise methods and methodologies to cope with the challenges arising from complexity. This chapter provides a brief overview of the field of complexity management. More specifically, it defines in detail the terms complexity and dynamic complexity. Dynamic complexity is most relevant for high impact decisions and I examine two methods First, causal context modelling (CCM). This is an integrative, qualitative, transdisciplinary approach which creates a qualitative description of a system including key variable interdependencies and system boundaries. The second methodology I explore is system dynamics (SD). Here I provide examples from a project carried out within the Use-it-Wisely project which helped the companies involved understand and deal with the dynamic problems facing them.
This paper is interested in exploring the competitive advantage of businesses. Current understanding of competitive advantage arises from the strategic management paradigm. However, the early theory that underpins this comes from optimising economic theory, the inadequacy of which led to the resource-based view. The next development came from knowledge management, which sees knowledge as a valuable strategic resource recognising the need to look more inside the organisation qualitatively. However, a new paradigm has arisen that couples knowledge processes with cybernetics. This recognises that achieving competitive advantage requires that an organisation’s pathologies must be recognised and addressed.
Learn why navigating between contexts is important.
Learn about the problems with traditional leadership theories.
Learn why contextual intelligence is needed today.
Learn how contextual intelligence addresses the issues of other leadership theories.
This paper applies chaos theory to innovation processes, highlighting nonlinear behavior and temporal dynamics in the process of replacing old and established technologies with the newly created ones. We employed the local Lyapunov exponent (LLE) to develop our model of analysis and define the edge of chaos. To illustrate our ideas, we analyzed the development of printers during the 1976–2012 period using patent application data. The results of the chaotic model were further enriched with a real-world industry review. We discuss the implications for research on chaotic dynamics of change, evolutionary processes of innovation, and managerial practices.
Context and intelligence are two concepts that when combined create unique insight relative to leadership in complex and ambiguous settings. Contextual intelligence is described as the ability to recognize patterns of interrelated artifacts inherent in events or circumstances, which result in intentional behaviors that facilitate influence. This chapter is divided into sections that introduce the concept of contextual intelligence as a framework rooted in three core concepts. Those concepts include understanding non- Newtonian thinking, synchronicity, and tacit knowledge. Following a discussion of these core concepts, the model is expanded to include three-dimensional (3D) thinking, which requires the practical application of hindsight, insight, and foresight through the lenses of the three core concepts. The chapter concludes with a diagram of the contextual intelligence circumplex and a breakdown and description of 12 meta-competencies (behaviors) associated with contextual intelligence.
Scientists in the biotechnology sector have developed a vast array of products and procedures, including drugs, diagnostics, agricultural products and veterinary procedures. This is made possible through various intra-and inter-organizational collaborations between the academic and private sectors, and through the establishment of networks for learning. In Networks for Learning and Knowledge Creation in Biotechnology, Amalya Lumerman Oliver shows how, in many respects, the organizational structure of the industry parallels one of its most important innovations-recombinant DNA (rDNA). She shows how the concept of recombination can be used to explain a number of organizational elements, including biotechnology firms, the form of university-based spin-offs, scientific entrepreneurship, and trust and contracts in learning collaborations and networks. The result is a stimulating account of how multiple theoretical perspectives can be used to understand the structure of the biotechnology industry © Amalya Lumerman Oliver 2009 and Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Generating research findings, which make sense in today's society and can be appreciated as such by both the academic and the business worlds, requires reframing not only the core of how research is being developed but also questions the relevance of organizational survival. The Imagineering Methodology developed within the framework of the NHTV University of Applied Sciences provides a complementary perspective on management research and design. This article aims to present the essence and the specifics of how research is evolving today, using the aforementioned methodological stance and showing certain outcomes, already achieved in practice.
Online communities can be seen as service systems, in which actors interact providing, requesting or sharing resources for [co-]creating value. On the basis of the resources needed/owned for achieving a goal it is possible to draw several dependence links among the actors (agents), creating a dependence network. On the other hand, since trust is the key coordinating mechanism in community based organizations, by analyzing the dynamics of trust in dependence networks is possible to better understand the behavior of this kind of service system, viewed as a complex social systems. In this paper we develop an architecture of cognitive agents and of the environment in which they act and interact. This architecture will be the basis for implementing a platform for agent based simulation that serves as a tool for investigating the dynamics of information sharing, collaboration, and collective action within different service systems.
Purpose
– While advancements in theory have helped illumine the complex workings of today’s organization, little is said on the practical implications for managers in terms of their role and behavioral style. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how a behavioral diagnostic tool – the Competing Values Framework (CVF; Quinn and Rohrbaugh, 1983) – can be utilized to develop managers in the behavioral skills needed to stay relevant and effective amid new organizational realities.
Design/methodology/approach
– The conceptual anchor of this paper is in complexity theory. The authors conducted a literature search for articles on complexity theory in selective management journals, and reviewed them to extract key lessons for effective managerial behavior.
Findings
– Three behaviors found to be central to managing complexity were: enabling, sensemaking, and facilitating shared leadership. It is suggested that the CVF is a useful tool for helping managers develop their behavioral repertoire and hence their skills for enacting these behaviors.
Originality/value
– The paper synthesizes a guiding frame for developing managers in some of the behavioral skills needed to handle complexity at the workplace. Toward this end, useful tips are offered for putting together a short training workshop where the CVF is rediscovered as a unique developmental tool.
According to modern service science theory, value is jointly generated by several partners forming a service system. In this work, we focus on a simple two-party system consisting of a service provider and its customer. The value created by this service system hinges on the contribution of both parties.
That is, it also depends on the collaboration of the customer, which is a key characteristic of services in traditional definitions. Providers, however, lack knowledge on how to identify and measure the influence factors for value cocreation, such as customer contribution. Being aware of customer contribution, providers could design and manage value propositions purposefully. In this work, we provide a first version of a framework of influence factors for value co-creation in service systems, which may serve providers as a guideline for identifying different types of customer contribution.
Virtual research collaborations (VRCs) have become an important method of conducting scientific activity; however, they are often regarded and treated as traditional scientific collaborations. Their success is measured by scholarly productivity and adherence to budget by funding agencies, participating scientists, and scholars. VRCs operate in complex environments interacting with other complex systems. A holistic (or organicist) approach is needed to make sense of this complexity. For that purpose, this study proposes using a new perspective, namely, the complex adaptive systems theory that can provide a better understanding of a VRC’s potential creativity, adaptability, resilience, and probable success. The key concepts of complex systems (diversity, interaction, interdependency, feedback, emergence, and adaptation) utilized in organization studies are used to discuss the behaviors of VRCs, illustrated with real-life examples.
Increasing attention is paid to organisational learning, with the success of contemporary organisations strongly contingent on their ability to learn and grow. Importantly, informal learning is argued to be even more significant than formal learning initiatives. Given the widespread use of digital technologies in the workplace, what requires further attention is how digital technologies (eg, massive open online courses—MOOC) enable informal learning processes. Drawing from Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory, in this paper we advance a conceptual model for examining this important topic. The two dimensional matrix and the micro-level description of informal learning activities presented provide a framework for both further research on technology-mediated practices for informal learning, as well as the design of formative contexts for learning to occur.
Over the last decade, interoperability appeared as a key enabler towards unlocking the full potential of enterprises, products, processes and systems. With methods to support their lifecycle, contributing towards removing communication barriers, and fostering a new-networked business culture in industrial domains, Enterprise Interoperability (EI) requires tangible scientific foundations. This chapter recognizes that, in terms of content, any scientific field exists in an ecosystem of neighboring domains and presents a methodology to identify EI’s relationship with its neighbors, thus supporting the foundations of EI Science Base (EISB). It can be agreed that formalisms like logic and mathematics are an integrant part of every science, but others also share relationships such as application fields’ boundaries, methodologies, techniques, or even tools. With the support of the European Commission, through the Future Internet and Enterprise Systems (FInES) cluster of research projects, the authors have initiated an analysis of comprehensive domains, e.g. complexity and software.
In this article, the author applies complex systems theory (CST) to help understand why, after 14 years of management scholar advocacy for a paradigmatic shift in management behavior, the field of management has been unable to move away from a technocentric paradigm. Using four principles of complex adaptive systems (CAS), the author shows that focusing exclusively on business behavior limits our attention to symptoms rather than the broader system of interacting agents whose collective behaviors legitimize and support an economic paradigm. By drawing on complexity and critical systems theory, the author then develops a three-phased process model that provides a preliminary conceptualization of what it might take to shift the business paradigm. The success of this shift is dependent on a consequential shift at the societal level, the interaction of which speaks to the implications for business as a recipient of this broader shift and, more important, its role as an agent in the process of creating new opportunities that sustain the life-supporting environmental and social systems. Through this model, the author presents important implications for policy makers and management theory.
This article explores the competitive advantage of businesses. Current understanding of competitive advantage arises from the strategic management paradigm. However, the early theory that underpins this comes from optimising economic theory, the inadequacy of which led to the resource-based view. The next development came from knowledge management, which sees knowledge as a valuable strategic resource recognizing the need to look more inside the organization qualitatively. However, a new paradigm has arisen that couples knowledge processes with cybernetics. This recognizes that achieving competitive advantage requires that an organization's pathologies must be recognized and addressed.
Longitudinal research in organizations has gained momentum to the point where it may now be considered to reflect the tenor of the times, or zeitgeist, for organizational studies. An important part of that longitudinal research is what, borrowing and extending from the work of Ilgen and Hulin, is called the third scientific discipline. That discipline consists of numerous perspectives focusing on various aspects of chaos/complexity, dynamic systems, and processual approaches. These approaches are being increasingly applied across various organizational research fields such as social and industrial/organizational psychology and small-group and leadership studies. A dynamic systems approach is turned on itself to analyze the scientific development of third-discipline approaches. Although the jury is still out, these approaches appear to be making increasingly strong contributions to the longitudinal zeitgeist and to organizational studies in general.
This article discusses a series of management research experiments in the banking sector carried out from the original perspective of the 'actor-researcher', that is, by a management researcher who is also a practitioner. It describes some of the epistemological and methodological implications involved in positioning the 'actor-researcher', permitting him or her, on the one hand, to play a directly useful role in an organization, and on the other, to generate new scientific knowledge.
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