Managing Complexity in Organizations: A View in Many Directions

by Michael R. Lissack, Hugh P. Gunz

Overview

Lissack and Gunz have gathered many of the leading practitioners from the science of complexity and its emerging applications to management—to give us an up-to-date, comprehensive understanding of this important new field and how it can change the way we think about the organizations. Complex systems, which consist of many interacting entities and exhibit properties such as self-organization, evolution, and constant novelty, exist in all domains of our world. The metaphors and models derived from complexity, say Lissack and Gunz, can be used to make sense of these systems and help managers shape them.

The three chapters in Part I introduce the topic of complexity science and how it relates to modern management practice, providing a context for the section on strategy, creativity, communications, and applications that follow. Part II examines strategy from a complexity perspective and complexity from a strategy perspective. In Part III the authors look at the intersection of complexity, creativity, and communication. Part IV on applications, examines how complexity-influenced theories of management actually affect routine management practice. Throughout, the book makes clear that what worked in a simpler, clearer world will not work today. State of the art yet basic enough to remain timely well into the future, this book will prove indispensable for organization decision makers everywhere and their academic colleagues.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781567202854
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/30/1999
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

MICHAEL R. LISSACK is Director of Organization Science Related Programs at the New England Complex Systems Institute and Visiting Professor of Business Ethics at the Rotterdam School of Management./e He was a senior adviser to Tripod Inc., prior to its acquisition by Lycos, and served as chairman of the strategic advisory board and acting CFO of Intelligenesis Inc.

HUGH P. GUNZ is Associate Dean of the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto./e Co-developer and programmer of a career development software, he publishes widely on the topics of careers of managers and professionals, and on the management of technology professionals.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Michael R. Lissack and Hugh P. Gunz
Overview
Complexity: The Science, Its Vocabulary, and Its Relation to Organizations by Michael R. Lissack
Complexity: More than a Fad? by Tom Petzinger
Complexity, Computational Ability, and the Corporation of the Future by Arnold J. Wytenburg
Strategy
Strategy as Design: A Fitness Landscape Framework by Steve Maguire
Markets in Phase Transition by Ken Baskin
The Future of Strategy: The Role of the New Sciences by Robin Wood
Creativity and Communication
Images or Reality? Metaphors, Memes, and Management by If Price
Chaos, Communication, and Cultural Change: Beyond the Management of Organization by Pekka Aula
The Architecture of Strategic Thought: A Neuronal Network Approach by Harold E. Klein
Strategic Management System Enhancement and the Concept of Strong Influence Strings by Adam J. Koch
Applications
Chaos Theory and Project Management: A Perspective on Managing the Complex Project by Janet Bardyn and Donna Fitzgerald
Complexity, It, and the Interprise by Mark W. McElroy
Adaptive Corporations by Mark White
Complexity in the Dynamics of Organizational Founding and Failure by Joel A. C. Baum and Brian S. Silverman
Evaluating Performance in a Complex Adaptive System by Glenda H. Eoyang and Thomas H. Berkas
Complexity Metaphors and the Process of Small Business Foresighting by Ted Fuller
Gorbachev as CEO Roadkill
Lessons for the Modern Corporation from the Soviet Foreign Policy Establishment's Failure to Manage Complexity by Robert M. Cutler
The Emergence of Technological Fields by Raghu Garud, Peter Karnoe, and E. Andres Garcia
Concluding Remarks by Michael R. Lissack and Hugh P. Gunz

Editorial Reviews

Contains papers from two 1998 conferences on the relationships between managing organizations and the science of complex systems. Early chapters explain how complexity science relates to modern management practice, and examine strategy from a complexity perspective and complexity from a strategy perspective. Later papers look at the intersection of complexity, creativity, and communication, and describe how complexity-influenced theories of management can actually affect day-to-day management practice. Domains examined range from windmills to Soviet politics. Gunz teaches organizational behavior at the University of Toronto. Lissack is director of the Institute for the Study of Coherence and Emergence. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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