Organizations as Complex Systems

Organizations as Complex Systems PDF Author: Maurice Yolles
Publisher: IAP
ISBN: 1607528088
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 884

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Book Description
Managing the Complex is an ambitious title - and it would be an audacious one if we were not to begin with a frank admission: to date few to none of us have a skill set which includes managing the complex. We try various things, we write about others, and we wonder about still others. When a tool, perspective, or technique comes along which seems to evoke success, we emulate it probe it and recoil at the all too often admission that it was situation and context which afforded success its opportunity, and not some quality intrinsic to the tool perspective or technique. Indeed, if the study of complexity has done anything for managers, and for those who espouse managerial theory, it is in providing a ‘scientific foundation’ for the notion that context matters. Those who preach abstract ideas have then to reconcile themselves to the notion that situation and embodiment matters. Those who believe in strong causality and determinism are left to wrestle with the role of chance, uncertainty, and chaos. Those who prefer to argue that men move history are confronted with the role of environment and affordances, while those who argue the reverse are left to contend with charisma, irrationality of crowds, and the strange qualities we know as emotions. A series on complex systems has less ambitious goals to contend with than this. Such a series can deal with classifications, and categories, and speak of ‘noise’ as if it were not the central focus of the problem. Managing the complex is about managing ‘noise’ or perhaps we should say it is about ‘dealing with’ ‘accepting’ ‘making room for’ and ‘learning from’ ‘noise’. The articles in this volume and in volumes to come will each be considered as ‘noise’ by some and as ‘gems’ by others, but we hope that practicing managers and academics alike will find plenty of fuel to drive their personal explorations into understanding, and perhaps even managing, the complex.

Organizations as Complex Systems

Organizations as Complex Systems PDF Author: Maurice Yolles
Publisher: IAP
ISBN: 1607528088
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 884

Get Book Here

Book Description
Managing the Complex is an ambitious title - and it would be an audacious one if we were not to begin with a frank admission: to date few to none of us have a skill set which includes managing the complex. We try various things, we write about others, and we wonder about still others. When a tool, perspective, or technique comes along which seems to evoke success, we emulate it probe it and recoil at the all too often admission that it was situation and context which afforded success its opportunity, and not some quality intrinsic to the tool perspective or technique. Indeed, if the study of complexity has done anything for managers, and for those who espouse managerial theory, it is in providing a ‘scientific foundation’ for the notion that context matters. Those who preach abstract ideas have then to reconcile themselves to the notion that situation and embodiment matters. Those who believe in strong causality and determinism are left to wrestle with the role of chance, uncertainty, and chaos. Those who prefer to argue that men move history are confronted with the role of environment and affordances, while those who argue the reverse are left to contend with charisma, irrationality of crowds, and the strange qualities we know as emotions. A series on complex systems has less ambitious goals to contend with than this. Such a series can deal with classifications, and categories, and speak of ‘noise’ as if it were not the central focus of the problem. Managing the complex is about managing ‘noise’ or perhaps we should say it is about ‘dealing with’ ‘accepting’ ‘making room for’ and ‘learning from’ ‘noise’. The articles in this volume and in volumes to come will each be considered as ‘noise’ by some and as ‘gems’ by others, but we hope that practicing managers and academics alike will find plenty of fuel to drive their personal explorations into understanding, and perhaps even managing, the complex.

Complex Systems and Self-organization Modelling

Complex Systems and Self-organization Modelling PDF Author: Cyrille Bertelle
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3540880739
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
This book, the outcome of a workshop meeting within ESM 2006, explores the use of emergent computing and self-organization modeling within various applications of complex systems.

Complex Systems Leadership Theory

Complex Systems Leadership Theory PDF Author: James K. Hazy
Publisher: Exploring Organizational Compl
ISBN: 9780979168864
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Written by leading experts in the field, this volume seeks to provide new insights and tools that have only recently become apparent through advances in complexity science.

Organization Design

Organization Design PDF Author: Nicolay Worren
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351383639
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
A well-designed organization is an effective organization. Decisions about organization design determine the shape and form of the organization – not only the reporting structure and authority relations, but also the number and size of sub-units and the interfaces between the sub-units. Indirectly, such decisions affect individual productivity as well as the organization’s ability to attain strategic goals. Organization Design equips the reader with advanced tools and frameworks, based on both research and practical experience, for understanding and re-designing organisations. Particular emphasis is placed on how one can improve effectiveness by simplifying complex roles, processes, and structures. This updated second edition includes a new chapter about traditional organizational forms, and is complemented by a companion website. Students will find thorough conceptual explanations combined with case studies from different industries. This textbook will be essential reading for students, scholars, and practitioners.

Strategy for Managing Complex Systems

Strategy for Managing Complex Systems PDF Author: Fredmund Malik
Publisher: Campus Verlag
ISBN: 3593505398
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 565

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Book Description
"Malik demonstrates that management and management theory have strong foundations in systems science, and most specifically in a certain type of cybernetics of truly complex systems, of organismic, self-organizing, and evolving systems. This book provides the basics on how to create robust, functional, and sustainably viable systems. One of the reasons why it has become a classic on management cybernetics, now in its 11th edition, is that the strategies and heuristic principles of complexity management are still relevant - now more than ever."--Back cover.

Understanding Complexity in Organizations

Understanding Complexity in Organizations PDF Author: Timothy Ludwig
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317986946
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
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.

Growing Wings on the Way

Growing Wings on the Way PDF Author: Rosalind Armson
Publisher: Triarchy Press
ISBN: 1908009292
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
This book is about dealing with messes. Sometimes known as 'wicked problems', messes (or messy situations) are fairly easy to spot:it's hard to know where to startwe can't define them everything seems to connect to everything else and depends on something else having been done first we get in a muddle thinking about them we often try to ignore some aspect/s of themwhen we finally do something about them, they usually get worse they're so entangled that our first mistake is usually to try and fix them as we would fix a simple problem.

Complex Systems and Evolutionary Perspectives on Organisations

Complex Systems and Evolutionary Perspectives on Organisations PDF Author: Eve Mitleton-Kelly
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780080502335
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
In January 1995 the first Complexity Seminar was held at the London School of Economics, in the UK. This was quite a momentous occasion as it proved to be the turning point for the series of seminars, which had started in December 1992. That seminar and those that followed it, had a profound effect on the research interests of Eve Mitleton-Kelly, the initiator and organiser of the series and editor of this volume, and thus laid the foundation for what became the LSE Complexity Research Programme, which proceeded to win several research awards for collaborative projects with companies.

Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance PDF Author: Ali Farazmand
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030662527
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 13623

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Book Description
This global encyclopedic work serves as a comprehensive collection of global scholarship regarding the vast fields of public administration, public policy, governance, and management. Written and edited by leading international scholars and practitioners, this exhaustive resource covers all areas of the above fields and their numerous subfields of study. In keeping with the multidisciplinary spirit of these fields and subfields, the entries make use of various theoretical, empirical, analytical, practical, and methodological bases of knowledge. Expanded and updated, the second edition includes over a thousand of new entries representing the most current research in public administration, public policy, governance, nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations, and management covering such important sub-areas as: 1. organization theory, behavior, change and development; 2. administrative theory and practice; 3. Bureaucracy; 4. public budgeting and financial management; 5. public economy and public management 6. public personnel administration and labor-management relations; 7. crisis and emergency management; 8. institutional theory and public administration; 9. law and regulations; 10. ethics and accountability; 11. public governance and private governance; 12. Nonprofit management and nongovernmental organizations; 13. Social, health, and environmental policy areas; 14. pandemic and crisis management; 15. administrative and governance reforms; 16. comparative public administration and governance; 17. globalization and international issues; 18. performance management; 19. geographical areas of the world with country-focused entries like Japan, China, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Russia and Eastern Europe, North America; and 20. a lot more. Relevant to professionals, experts, scholars, general readers, researchers, policy makers and manger, and students worldwide, this work will serve as the most viable global reference source for those looking for an introduction and advance knowledge to the field.

The Information Processing Theory of Organization

The Information Processing Theory of Organization PDF Author: John L. Kmetz
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429780834
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
First published in 1998, revised in 2021, this volume develops and tests an information-processing model of organization, within the context of the accession of a new generation of a production technology. The model conceptualizes organizations as systems which accomplish their objectives through the processing of information. The book begins with the conceptual basis of the theory, developing the fundamental concepts of information, information processing, and technology. The accession of an automatic avionics tester during the 1970s and 1980s is the change in production technology used to test the theory. The theory is tested by mapping and analysing performance with a three-wave longitudinal field experiment and objective performance measures in the workflow of a very complex system, the U.S. Navy’s avionics maintenance organization. The information processing capacity of the system is shown to be the primary determinant of system performance, with or without the use of information technology. Additional support for the theory comes from newer test and information technologies deployed in the 1980s and 1990s. Implications of this theory for current generations of test technology are provided in the final chapters, along with further development of the theory and its general application to many types of organizations.