ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on approaching research development through the lens of complexity. There is little doubt that departments and research programs have the properties and characteristics of complex adaptive systems. It is clear from the multiscale description of one academic department with an established program of scholarship that, if representative, research programs function as non-linear complex systems. Balanced between stable and unstable, between chaos and periodicity, critical systems are capable of rapid self-organization and emergence, the connection to higher-scale dynamics. Thus, faculty development interventions may be successful in promoting scholarly outcomes among low-productivity faculty. Healthy network development can be fostered and supported, recognizing that there is an optimal level of intra-departmental collaboration, with selective external collaboration to promote optimal fitness reached within a limited period of time. The chapter ends with promoting scholarship at the individual and departmental levels based on linear and non-linear assumptions and approaches.
