상세정보

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 thinkingdraws 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 processescalls 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.

정보제공 :

CONTENTS

Series preface = ⅸ

1 Introduction : getting things done in organizations = 1

 "Getting things done, anyway" = 3

 Ways of thinking = 6

 Outline of the book = 9

2 The age-old question of stability and change = 12

 The claims of management complexity writers = 17

 Moving toward a knowable future = 21

 Human freedom and the scientific method = 22

 The importance of Kant's contribution = 25

 Conclusion = 29

3 Moving toward an unknowable future = 30

 The perpetual construction of the future = 30

 Chance and adaptation = 39

 Alternatives to some of Darwin's views = 41

 Darwin and the neo-Darwinian synthesis = 44

 Five ways of understanding stability and change = 49

 Conclusion = 51

4 Limits of systems thinking : focusing on knowable futures = 56

 Dealing with human participation and freedom = 58

 Scientific management : ignoring interaction = 61

 Systems thinking : splitting choice and interaction = 64

 Conclusion = 82

5 How the complexity sciences deal with the future = 85

 Chaos theory : unfolding an enfolded future = 86

 Chaos theory as Formative Teleology = 89

 Dissipative structure theory : constructing an unknowable future = 92

 Conclusion = 103

6 Complexity and the emergence of novelty = 106

 Complex adaptive systems : a life of their own = 106

 Review of the management complexity writers' claim = 119

 Conclusion : the challenge = 123

7 Differing views on complexity in organizations = 127

 Complexity and the dynamics of industries : limits to control and the origins of novelty = 130

 Marion's analysis of causality in complex systems = 138

 Complexity and the dynamics of organizations : sustaining the illusion of control = 141

 Conclusion = 154

8 Complexity and human action = 157

 Human action in the dominant management discourse : focusing on the individual = 158

 Human action in complexity : retaining the individual focus = 163

 Transformation and human action : focusing on relationship and participation = 171

 Conclusion = 181

9 Getting things done in organizations : from systems to complex responsive processes = 183

 Key elements of our project = 186

 The books in this series = 193

Appendix 1 : The origins of Western notions of causality = 195

Appendix 2 : Complexity sciences as sources of analogy = 199

Appendix 3 : The movement of our thought = 207

Bibliography = 214

Index = 221