Leadership style and the management of the effects of complexity_Abstract
To be published as a Chapter in the Book: 'Chaos and Complexity Theory for Management: Nonlinear Dynamics' (Ed. S.Banerjee) - Summer 2012
Within any organisation be that a project or a company department a number of people / ‘systems’ come together to... more
Within any organisation be that a project or a company department a number of people / ‘systems’ come together to perform tasks and deliver the expected outcome. In the process of performing those tasks a number of interconnections are generated that reinforce one another and result in behaviours that are very different to the norm and cause complexity. The author presents results from a wider research in construction which investigated the effect(s) of socio-organo complexity on project performance and particularly through the attribute of leadership style adopted. The results proved the nonlinearity between performance and complexity and lack of actions that will manage the effects of complexity. A framework was developed, validated and presented in this chapter, which, by using the characteristics of complexity, allows the measurement of the current level of actions and provides a set of additional actions that will enable management of complexity through the leadership style.
Keywords
Complexity, Management Style, Performance, Project Management.
Complexity Definitions
These definitions are included in a dynamic process and they change as the theory developed by Andrés Ginestet changes. Complexity is based on dynamics, and the response needs to follow the dynamics of complexity itself.
- Environmental complexity (C0) is any portion of organized information in any state that is required to fulfill... more
- Environmental complexity (C0) is any portion of organized information in any state that is required to fulfill survival conditions for human complexity (C1+C2+C3)
- Absolute complexity (C1) is any defined portion of organized information in an inert state.
- Relative complexity (C2) is any dynamic communication (communicative exchange) of a defined portion of information.
- Contingent complexity (C3) is any dynamic multiverse possibility of any transformation of any absolute information that has (had) a relative quality to it.
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Seen by: and 10 moreComplexity Definitions
These definitions are included in a dynamic process and they change as the theory developed by Andrés Ginestet changes. Complexity is based on dynamics, and the response needs to follow the dynamics of complexity itself.
- Environmental complexity (C0) is any portion of organized information in any state that is required to fulfill... more
- Environmental complexity (C0) is any portion of organized information in any state that is required to fulfill survival conditions for human complexity (C1+C2+C3)
- Absolute complexity (C1) is any defined portion of organized information in an inert state.
- Relative complexity (C2) is any dynamic communication (communicative exchange) of a defined portion of information.
- Contingent complexity (C3) is any dynamic multiverse possibility of any transformation of any absolute information that has (had) a relative quality to it.
55 views
Seen by: and 10 moreLanguage, complexity and narrative emergence: Lessons from Solution Focused practice
Published as a chapter in Andrew Tait and Kurt Richardson (2011), Moving Forward with Complexity, Litchfield Park AZ: Emergent Publications, ISBN 978-0984216598
This paper examines the case for viewing conversations as emergent phenomena, and the practical consequences for... more This paper examines the case for viewing conversations as emergent phenomena, and the practical consequences for complexity practitioners and others engaged in ‘talking cures’. Post-structural thinking from Wittgenstein onwards is connected to the school of Solution-Focused practice, which has made explicit use of these ideas in a practical, pragmatic and effective form of psychotherapy and coaching. These fields can be connected by the idea of ‘narrative emergence’, which casts light on the ways in which new narratives are formed within apparently everyday conversations.
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Seen by: and 8 moreConverging Technologies: The Future of the Global Information Society
First Committee chair report to the UN General Assembly, RSA Information Security Award for Outstanding Achievement (2004).
"Christopher Altman, Chairman of the UNISCA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, was recently selected as recipient of the RSA Information Security Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Policy for his report to the General Assembly, "Converging Technologies: The Future of the Global Information Society."
"The RSA Conference and Awards is the world's most prestigious international information security conference for organizations that deploy, develop or investigate security or cryptography."
"Previous RSA Keynote speakers and Awards Recipients include Bill Gates, Microsoft Corporation, US Congressman Tom Davis, and Richard Clarke, former White House Security Advisor. "
The complex web of the global information grid will undergo explosive changes over coming decades. As advances in... more The complex web of the global information grid will undergo explosive changes over coming decades. As advances in science and technology converge, a myriad array of discoveries in biotechnology, nanotechnology and information technology will produce unpredictable effects that must be accounted for in any estimate of what the world will look like in this future. A strategically important feature of this world will be the emerging trend of information warfare. Though still immature at present day, this trend will become increasingly dominant in the years to come. The information warfare of tomorrow will be radically different from its prototype today. No longer will it be confined to the mainframes of the Internet or to corporate databases: the battleground of the future will draw into its scope the scientific advances being made today in bio and nano technologies. The divisions between man and machine will blur. When networked technologies are ubiquitous, a state-sponsored attack on electronic networks can have far-reaching, and devastating, physical consequences.
From Wittgenstein, Complexity, and Narrative Emergence: Discourse and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
Co-authored with Gale Miller, Marquette University. Published as
*Miller G & McKergow M (2012), From Wittgenstein, Complexity, and Narrative Emergence: Discourse and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (in A. Lock and T. Strong, eds, Discursive Perspectives in Therapeutic Practice. (Oxford: Oxford University Press) pp163-183
This chaper connects Wittgensteinian thinking and complexity perspectives with discourse in the therapy room and... more
This chaper connects Wittgensteinian thinking and complexity perspectives with discourse in the therapy room and elsewhere. We propose that this connection, termed 'narrative emergence''. While the future is unknowable, it is an ever present possibility in the present
We continuously create and discover the future by engaging in self-organizing activities (particularly social interactions) that are, at least partly, improvised, and potentially transformative. Thus, the narratives emergent in our everyday lives are always under construction. They exist in our ongoing ‘work’ to make sense of and manage the exigencies of life. These narratives emerge step-by-step in discourse.
Complexity Science and Management: What's In It for Business?
Essay review of six books. Published as "Complexity Science and Management - What's in it for business?", Long Range Planning 29, pp 721 - 727(1996)
M Mitchell Waldrop: Complexity, Penguin, 1994, 359pp, £8.99pb
John Casti: Complexification, Abacus, 1994,... more
M Mitchell Waldrop: Complexity, Penguin, 1994, 359pp, £8.99pb
John Casti: Complexification, Abacus, 1994, 320pp, £7.99pb
Paul Ormerod: The Death of Economics, Faber and Faber, 1994,230pp, £6.99pb
Ralph Stacey and David Parker: Chaos, Management andEconomics: The Implications of Non-Linear Thinking, IEA HobartPaper 125, 1994, 112pp, £9.00pb
H Richard Priesmeyer: Organisations and Chaos, Quorum Books,1992, 253pp
Kevin Kelly: Out of Control, 4th Estate, 1994, 666pp, £8.99pb
Complexity - a word to send shivers up the spine of thehard-pressed manager. Is the world a complex place? You bet itis. Not at all like the case studies in books, or in your MBAprogramme. So much to take in, and so little time to decide whatto do.....Thoughts like this surely enter many heads at varioustimes. Is there insight just around the corner?
