ABSTRACT

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.

chapter 1|11 pages

Introduction: getting things

done in organizations

part |1 pages

The Brand Project: shifting our identity

part |1 pages

Conclusion

chapter 3|8 pages

Moving toward an unknowable future

chapter 4|13 pages

Limits of systems thinking:

focusing on knowable futures

chapter |8 pages

Review

part 5|2 pages

How the complexity sciences deal with the future

part |2 pages

A participative approach

chapter |4 pages

Appendix 1: The origins

of Western notions of causality

chapter |6 pages

Appendix 2: Complexity sciences

as sources of analogy

chapter |2 pages

The objective observer