ABSTRACT
Before moving too deeply into a consideration of learning and how it may operate in chaotic organizational situations, it is important to understand that the concept of chaos and the concept of chaos theory are not one and the same. What this book will refer to as classical chaos has a different set of definitions and connotative meanings from the more recent ideas of mathematical or technical chaos, which are bound up with chaos theory. While there is a relationship between the two applications of the term chaos, the relationship is one that needs to be thoroughly understood. One cannot be satisfied to understand the changes in organizations, and the uncertainties surrounding school, work, and home life, as the influence of classical chaos alone. It is important to go beyond that concept and view the changes themselves as a part of the systems in which we live and participate. As such, it is important to understand how technical chaos manifests itself within our organizational systems. We need to see how we can recognize it and how we might manipulate it to the greater success of the systems. We need to understand the role that learning might play in helping us, our machines, and our networks participate more effectively in a technically chaotic system.
