Organizations as complex adaptive systems

Managing Community Knowledge to Build a Better World

by William P. Hall

2011; Hall, William P. and Kilpatrick, Bill. Managing Community Knowledge to Build a Better World. 22nd Australasian Conference on Information Systems Managing Community Knowledge 29th November to 2nd December 2011, Sydney

Our planet faces many impending crises as a consequence of growing populations and rising affluence. Governmental... more Our planet faces many impending crises as a consequence of growing populations and rising affluence. Governmental bodies at any level seem unable to provide the leadership to mitigate these. It seems to be up to those in the community who are most directly affected to take the leadership. Yet, without access to knowledge and understanding, individuals and communities are powerless against administrative juggernauts that are all too often beholden to a few powerful individuals rather than the communities they are supposed to represent and support. However, the Internet and newly invented social and cloud computing technologies provide individuals with fingertip access to humanity’s knowledge base; tools for extracting, evaluating, and sharing knowledge that is relevant to local needs; as well as tools for socially coordinating that action to promote and guide action. This paper reviews some of these tools and discusses how they can be applied for good or ill.

Reform at the Edge of Chaos: Connecting Complexity, Social Networks, and Policy Implementation

by Alan Daly

Under Review: Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis

Drawing on complexity theory, this paper argues that common rational assumptions undergirding current reform policies... more Drawing on complexity theory, this paper argues that common rational assumptions undergirding current reform policies (such as linearity and uniformity) limit our understanding of how policy is enacted through complex social interactions. In a three-year exploratory study, we examined the implementation of a reform policy targeted at improving a consistently underperforming school district under progressive sanction. We utilized longitudinal social network modeling to illustrate how districts can be conceptualized as complex adaptive systems. Results identify a distinct complex pattern of social interactions underlying the process of policy implementation. District and site leaders tended to form relationships based on reciprocity, local neighborhoods, similarity, popularity, and administrative experience. Implications for policy and directions for future research are discussed.

The Fitting Enterprise. A Model of Sustainability and Persistence.

by Peter Bond

This is a working paper which will be presented at the Institute of Small Business and Enterprise conference in November 2011.

The objective for this paper is to introduce a possible new paradigmatic framework for explaining new enterprise... more The objective for this paper is to introduce a possible new paradigmatic framework for explaining new enterprise formation and growth based on complex or nonlinear systems theory. The presence of Persistent Players in local economies exemplifies the concept of the Fitting Enterprise and the social dynamics involved.

Distinguishing a group of enterprises christened Persistent Players is an unanticipated outcome of research at University of Liverpool’s School of Archaeology to investigate the anthropology of enterprising behaviour and its impact on the pace and direction of technological and cultural evolution. Small businesses are a potential subject for research. In the context of conventional enterprise research, Persistent Players are overlooked in favour of new starts and potentially high growth enterprises, and yet, in the many cases found of trading for 40 years and more, they may form the invisible backbone of regional economies and deserve more attention.

This is a qualitative paper of an exploratory nature. Its main task is to introduce a new paradigmatic framework, a synthesis of complex or nonlinear systems theory and concepts from both emergent and established sociological and anthropological theories of technology, networks, product innovation, and cultural transformation. The paper highlights the function of conversation in maintaining social group cohesion at a point of tension between fusion and fission. It is at this point, it is suggested, that conversational networks are near a supracritical and thus unstable state. Persistent Players may maintain this state for generations of managers, but how?.

The Knowledge Network: A Fundamentally New (Relational) Approach To Knowledge Management & The Study Of Complex Co-Dependent Organizations

by Eugene Kowch

Complexity Theory and the War on Terror: Understanding the Self-Organising Dynamics of Leaderless Jihad

by Antoine Bousquet

Forthcoming in the Journal of International Relations and Development (2012) - advanced online publication in 2011

This article seeks to theoretically substantiate Marc Sageman’s claims of a “leaderless jihad” through the application... more This article seeks to theoretically substantiate Marc Sageman’s claims of a “leaderless jihad” through the application of the conceptual framework offered by the novel scientific paradigm of complexity theory. It is argued that jihadist networks, such as those behind the September 11 attacks and the bombings in London and Madrid, can be profitably understood in terms of complex adaptive systems, emergent organisations that coalesce and self-organise in a decentralised fashion. Complexity sheds new light on the jihadist movement by providing an account of the bottom-up self-organisation of its networks and the systems of distributed intelligence which allow them to operate and pursue successful attacks on the basis of partial and localised information, and this despite the strenuous efforts at counter-terrorism deployed by states.

From Wittgenstein, Complexity, and Narrative Emergence: Discourse and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

by Mark McKergow

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.