Download or read book The Interaction of Complexity and Management written by Michael R. Lissack and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2002-11-30 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is complexity science? What is management? And how are the two linked? The potential of complexity science in the fields of management and organization studies has been explored before, yet there is little agreement on what complexity science truly is. Lissack and Rivkin, along with a panel of distinguished academics and executives, identify critical topics in the study of complexity science. They reveal complexity science to be a process, one seeking and understanding of the systems we inhabit, and ways of applying that understanding to the management of organizations. Complexity science is not a management fad, and the authors do not treat it as such. Instead, they offer useful and fascinating viewpoints on how work is managed in an age of business uncertainty, and how it can be more successfully managed with the aid of this rapidly evolving new field of science. Their multidisciplinary book combines systems theory, statistical modeling, and individual and organizational learning in an innovative new context. The volume takes a pragmatic approach: if it works, it's right. And complexity science, say the authors, work extremely well. This book is an important resource for upper level executives, specialists in organizational behavior, and their colleagues in the academic community.

Download or read book The SAGE Handbook of Complexity and Management written by Peter Allen and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2011-04-06 with total page 665 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the substantive scholarly work to provide a map of the state of art research in the growing field emerging at the intersection of complexity science and management studies.

Download or read book Complexity and Management written by Ralph D. Stacey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-01-04 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Structural Complexity Management written by Udo Lindemann and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-09-24 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Product design is characterized by a steady increase in complexity. The main focus of this book is a structural approach on complexity management. This means, system structures are considered in order to address the challenge of complexity in all aspects of product design. Structures arise from the complex dependencies of system elements. Thus, the identification of system structures provides access to the understanding of system behavior in practical applications. The book presents a methodology that enables the analysis, control and optimization of complex structures, and the applicability of domain-spanning problems. The methodology allows significant improvements on handling system complexity by creating improved system understanding on the one hand and optimizing product design that is robust for system adaptations on the other hand. Developers can thereby enhance project coordination and improve communication between team members and as a result shorten development time. The practical application of the methodology is described by means of two detailed examples.

Download or read book Complexity and Organizational Reality written by Ralph D. Stacey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-12-18 with total page 695 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Approaches to leadership and management are still dominated by prescriptions – usually claimed as scientific – for top executives to choose the future direction of their organization. The global financial recession and the collapse of investment capitalism (surely not planned by anyone) make it quite clear that top executives are simply not able to choose future directions. Despite this, current management literature mostly continues to avoid the obvious – management’s inability to predict or control what will happen in the future. The key question now must be how we are to think about management if we take the uncertainty of organizational life seriously. Ralph Stacey has turned to the sciences of uncertainty and complexity to develop an understanding of leadership and management as the ordinary politics of daily organizational life. In presenting organizations as a series of complex responsive processes, Stacey’s new book helps us to see organizational reality for what it actually is – human beings engaged in many, many local conversational interactions and power relations in which they negotiate their ideologically based choices. Organizational continuity and change emerge unpredictably, rather than as a result of any overall plan. This is a radically different picture from the one painted by most of the management literature, which explains "organizational continuity and change" as the realization of the global plans and choices of a few powerful executives within an organization. Providing a new foundation for understanding complexity and management, this important book is required reading for managers and leaders wanting to understand the reality of complexity in organizations, including those engaged in postgraduate studies in leadership, organizational behaviour and change management.

Download or read book The SAGE Handbook of Complexity and Management written by Peter Allen and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2011-03-18 with total page 665 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The SAGE Handbook of Complexity and Management is the first substantive scholarly work to provide a map of the state of art research in the growing field emerging at the intersection of complexity science and management studies. Edited and written by internationally respected scholars from management and related disciplines, the Handbook will be the definitive reference source for understanding the implications of complexity science for management research and practice. Part One: Foundations introduces complexity science and its implications for the foundations of scientific knowledge, including management knowledge. Part Two: Applications presents the numerous ways in which complexity science models and tools, as well as complexity thinking, are being applied to management and organizational phenomena and the insights gained as a result. Part Three: Interfaces highlights how complexity science is transforming various non-management fields and, in so doing, creating exciting interfaces for bridging between management and related disciplines.

Download or read book Complexity and Ecosystem Management written by Marco Janssen and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The quality of ecosystems is affected by the actions of different stakeholders who use them in a variety of ways. In order to understand this complex relationship between humans and nature, it is vital to understand the complexity of the interacting agents. The authors in this book attempt to do this by applying multi-agent systems to the problems of ecosystem management. The multi-agent approach to ecosystem management is a relatively new and rapidly developing field which takes a formal computational approach towards the interaction of humans with their environment. The authors highlight some of the promising new methodologies which are emerging in the field from disciplines such as computer science and computational social science. They move on to address a number of important topics including diffusion processes, common-pool resources, land use change and the participatory use of models, in an attempt to solve contemporary management issues. They clearly demonstrate the potential utility of multi-agent systems in the context of theoretical problems and practical case studies.

Download or read book Complexity Theory and Project Management written by Wanda Curlee and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An insightful view on how to use the power of complexity theory to manage projects more successfully Current management practices require adherence to rigid, global responses unsuitable for addressing the changing needs of most projects. Complexity Theory and Project Management shifts this paradigm to create opportunities for expanding the decision-making process in ways that promote flexibility—and increase effectiveness. It informs readers on the managerial challenges of juggling project requirements, and offers them a clear roadmap on how to revise perspectives and reassess priorities to excel despite having an unpredictable workflow. One of the first books covering the subject of complexity theory for project management, this useful guide: Explains the relationship of complexity theory to virtual project management Supplies techniques, tips, and suggestions for building effective and successful teams in the virtual environment Presents current information about best practices and relevant proactive tools Makes a strong case for including complexity theory in PMI®'s PMBOK® Guide Complexity Theory and Project Management gives a firsthand view on the future of complexity theory as a driving force in the management field, and allows project managers to get a head start in applying its principles immediately to produce more favorable outcomes. (PMI and PMBOK are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.)

Download or read book Complexity and the Nexus of Leadership written by J. Goldstein and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2011-05-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors present a new approach to leadership based on findings from complexity science. Integrating real case studies with rigorous research results, they explore the biggest challenges being faced in fast-paced organizations, and provide a host of concrete tools for leading during critical periods.

Download or read book Managing Institutional Complexity written by Sebastian Oberthur and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-08-19 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Experts investigate how states and other actors can improve inter-institutional synergy and examine the complexity of overlapping environmental governance structures. Institutional interaction and complexity are crucial to environmental governance and are quickly becoming dominant themes in the international relations and environmental politics literatures. This book examines international institutional interplay and its consequences, focusing on two important issues: how states and other actors can manage institutional interaction to improve synergy and avoid disruption; and what forces drive the emergence and evolution of institutional complexes, sets of institutions that cogovern particular issue areas. The book, a product of the Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change research project (IDGEC), offers both theoretical and empirical perspectives. Chapters range from analytical overviews to case studies of institutional interaction, interplay management, and regime complexes in areas including climate change, fisheries management, and conservation of biodiversity. Contributors discuss such issues as the complicated management of fragmented multilateral institutions addressing climate change; the possible “chilling effect” on environmental standards from existing commitments; governance niches in Arctic resource protection; the relationships among treaties on conservation and use of plant genetic resources; causal factors in cross-case variation of regime prevalence; and the difficult relationship between the World Trade Organization and multilateral environmental agreements. The book offers a broad overview of research on interplay management and institutional complexes that provides important insights across the field of global environmental governance.

Download or read book Complexity and Knowledge Management written by Kurt A. Richardson and published by IAP. This book was released on 2010-02-01 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It seems as if attempts to use knowledge to understand and manage social networks are everywhere. Millions, if not billions, of dollars are being spent in an attempt to derail terrorist networks, with much of it being invested in making sense of massive data streams. There is growing concern that much of this money is being squandered on approaches that will never deliver on their promises. Our armed forces are being prepared to combat terrorist threats by the introduction of “network centric approaches” and “digital battlefields” – basically attempts to provide warfighters with a complete picture of the battlespace. However, the experience of practitioners suggests that the “data smog” this creates is actually counterproductive. From the arena of politics, the recent invigorating battle between senators Clinton and Obama has thrown the spotlight on the deficiencies in political polling (Economist, 2008b). Changes in the structure of the situation (e.g. high turnouts) have thrown the whole industry into chaos. Complexity is being discounted and the results are stark. The conclusion formed in the media was that the situation was wildly unpredictable (so anyone’s to win), and ended up having real consequences for the Democratic challenger in November 2008 (Baldwin, 2008). Turning to business, we find that Société Générale recently lost $7.2bn as the result of a single rogue trader making a series of bogus transactions amid turbulent markets in 2007 and 2008. There has been much speculation on what was known, when it was known, and who knew it. In other words, we have speculation that this is an example of the role of knowledge in the mismanagement of social networks – with spectacular effect. At a glance, the problems highlighted above seem positively overwhelming. Where do you start? But start we must. Simple “cause and effect” thinking doesn’t seem to be able to cut the mustard. There is broad agreement that even if the Kyoto targets were fully met, on schedule, by 2100 it would only delay the warming of the planet by six years (Parry et al., 1998). We need to utilize knowledge in new ways…or maybe uncover insights from old ways. It is hard to think of something more worthy of attention that the role of knowledge in the management of complex systems. In Volume 4 of the Managing the Complex Series we have brought together seventeen essays from authors around the globe to explore the complex systems view of knowledge and its role in social networks. Contributors explore such topics as: the limitations to our knowledge of complex systems, the transfer of knowledge from local to global levels, collaborative knowledge generation, decision making in complex multi-stakeholder situations, organizational learning and innovation, all through the lens of the emerging field of complexity science. The editors hope that this volume will give theorists further avenues to explore in their attempts to understand knowledge creation, maintenance and distribution, and also provide practitioners with new tools to apply in the complex and messy real world.

Download or read book Complexity and the Experience of Leading Organizations written by Douglas Griffin and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2005 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The experienced leaders, consultants and managers contributing to this book provide an alternative way of making sense of experience in a rapidly changing world, using reflective rather than idealized accounts of everyday life in organizations.

Download or read book Complexity Management and the Dynamics of Change written by Elizabeth McMillan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-08-28 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introducing the principles of complexity science, this innovative text illustrates how different kinds of organizational can become more effective, democratic and sustainable by using these powerful ideas.

Download or read book Tools and Techniques of Leadership and Management written by Ralph Stacey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-06-25 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many of today’s books on the tools and techniques of leadership and management provide descriptions of long lists for use in decision-making, leading, coaching and project management. This book takes a completely different approach. It contests the claims that the tools and techniques are based on evidence and explains why human activities of leading and managing are simply not amenable to scientific proof and consequently, why long-term futures of organizations are unpredictable. The book undertakes a critical exploration of just what these tools and techniques are about; showing that while they may lead to competent performance they cannot go further to expert performance because expertise involves going beyond rules and procedures. Ralph Stacey investigates the many questions that are thrown up as a result of this new approach. Questions such as: How do we apply this new way of thinking? What are the practical tools and techniques it gives us? What is the role of leaders in an unpredictable world? How does complexity affect the way organizations are structured and function? This book will be relevant to students on courses and modules that deal with leadership, decision-making and organizational development and behaviour as well as professional leaders and managers who want to develop their own understanding and techniques.

Download or read book Complexity and the Experience of Managing in Public Sector Organizations written by Ralph Stacey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-05-07 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fundamental problem of public sector governance relates to the very way of thinking it reflects; where organization is thought of as a ‘thing’, a system designed to deliver what its designers choose. This volume questions that way of thinking and takes a perspective in which organizations are complex responsive processes of relating between people. Bringing together the work of participants on the Doctor of Management program at Hertfordshire University, this book focuses on the move to marketization and managerialism, paying particular attention to human relationships and group dynamics. The contributors provide narrative accounts of their work addressing questions of management, pressures, accountability, responsiveness and traditional systems perspectives. In considering such questions in terms of their daily experience, they explore how the perspective of complex responsive processes assists them in making sense of experience and developing practice. Including an editors’ commentary which introduces and contextualizes these experiences as well as drawing out key themes for further research, this book will be of value to academics, students and practitioners looking for reflective accounts of real life experiences rather than further prescriptions of what organizational life ought to be.

Download or read book School Leadership and Complexity Theory written by Keith Morrison and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interest in complexity theory, a relation of chaos theory, has become well established in the business community in recent years. Complexity theory argues that systems are complex interactions of many parts which cannot be predicted by accepted linear equations. In this book, Keith Morrison introduces complexity theory to the world of education, drawing out its implications for school leadership. He suggests that schools are complex, nonlinear and unpredictable systems, and that this impacts significantly within them. As schools race to keep up with change and innovation, he suggests that it is possible to find order without control and to lead without coercion. Key areas: * schools and self-organisation * leadership for self-organisation * supporting emergence through the learning organisation * schools and their environments * communication * fitness landscapes This book will be of interest to headteachers and middle managers, and those on higher level courses in educational leadership and management.

Download or read book Understanding Complexity in Organizations written by Timothy Ludwig and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-02-11 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Organizations are complex entities that must adapt the practices of their employees and management to meet the demands of a dynamic environment. Organizations are behavioral systems that coordinate interactions among its members and environment. Changing practices in one area of an organization can generate a reaction throughout the entire system, thus affecting the behaviors of those working within other areas, the experience of customers, and important organizational results. Behavioral Systems Analysis (BSA) focuses on these complex contingencies from the macro system all the way down to individual behavior. This book contains articles by internationally recognized experts in Behavioral Systems Analysis who discuss the role of organizational practices in their study of performance improvement and cultural change from both practical and conceptual perspectives. Business and non-profit managers will find tools and case studies to help understand and diagnose their organization’s dynamics. Scholars will appreciate articles’ theory and real-world descriptions when considering their own research direction. Finally, all students of management theory, behavior analysis, and human resources will find this collection a thought-provoking tool for their understanding of behavioral systems and their application in organizations. This book was published as a special issue in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management.