Complexity: are organizations

In this chapter, I review the work of some of the writers who argue that chaos and complexity theories provide a way of understanding organizations as living systems. Those adopting this approach claim that a combination of systems thinking with the complexity sciences yields a theory of living systems that makes a significant difference in understanding emergence in organizations. I will be reviewing three examples of this approach, namely, Margaret Wheatley, Roger Lewin and Birute Regine, and Richard Pascale. All of these writers develop ideas around the points examined in the theory of the learning organization in the last chapter to do with:

Examining their work under the above headings will facilitate comparison with Senge’s theory of the learning organization. Senge’s theory was developed within the framework of second-order cybernetics and it essentially avoided paradox. The three writers examined in this chapter, however, refer to the reappearance of paradox in complexity theory. They all see paradox playing a role in social interaction in organizations but they have different views on its definition and implications.