Complexity and management : fad or radical challenge to systems thinking? / / Ralph D. Stacey, Douglas Griffin and Patricia Shaw

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910679520103321
• Autore: Stacey Ralph D.
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: London ; ; New York : , : Routledge, , 2000
• ISBN: 9780203184684; 0203184688; 9781280354618; 1280354615; 9781134538973; 1134538979; 9780203190159; 0203190157
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (241 p.)
• Collana: Complexity and emergence in organizations Complexity and management
• Classificazione: 85.08
• Altri autori (Persone): GriffinDouglas <1946->; ShawPatricia <1953->
• Disciplina: 302.35; 658.4
• Soggetti: Complex organizations; Complexity (Philosophy); Industrial management; Interorganizational relations; Organizational change; Organizational effectiveness; System analysis; Organizational effectiveness - Management; Management; Business & Economics; Management Styles & Communication
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (pages [214]-220) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Book Cover; Title; Contents; Series preface; Introduction: getting things ; done in organizations; ~Getting things done, anyway~; Ways of thinking; Outline of the book; The age-old question of stability and change; The claims of management complexity writers; Moving toward a knowable future; Human freedom and the scientific method; The importance of Kant's contribution; Conclusion; Moving toward an unknowable future; Chance and adaptation; Alternatives to some of Darwin's views; Darwin and the neo-Darwinian synthesis; Five ways of understanding stability and change; Conclusion; Limits of systems thinking: focusing on knowable futuresDealing with human participation and freedom; Scientific management: ignoring interaction; Systems thinking: splitting choice and interaction; Conclusion; How the complexity sciences deal with the future; Chaos theory: unfolding an enfolded future; Chaos theory as Formative Teleology; Dissipative structure theory: constructing an unknowable future; Conclusion; Complexity and the emergence of novelty; Review of the management complexity writers' claim; Conclusion: the challenge; Differing views on complexity in organizations; Complexity and the dynamics of industries: limits to control and the origins of noveltyMarion's analysis of causality in complex systems; Complexity and the dynamics of organizations: sustaining the illusion of control; Conclusion; Complexity and human action; Human action in the dominant management discourse: focusing on the individual; Human action in complexity: retaining the individual focus; Transformation and human action: focusing on relationship and participation; Conclusion; Getting things done in organizations: from systems to complex responsive processes; Key elements of our projectThe books in this series; Appendix 1: The origins of Western notions of causality; Appendix 2: Complexity sciences as sources of analogy; Appendix 3: The movement of our thought; Bibliography; Index
• Sommario/riassunto: 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 thinkingdraws a new perspective on using co