ABSTRACT
The chapter examines the theory developed by Ralph Stacey and scholars from the Complexity and Management Centre, University of Hertfordshire UK. Called “complex responsive processes of relating,” the theory was inspired by the complexity sciences and draws on social theory to provide a helpful perspective on managing in complexity.
In summary, these scholars contend that there is no master plan, strategy, or political decision that determines the future development of an organisation—or country. Instead, it is the multitude of interactions of individuals and groups that determines what happens. The resulting interplay and interweaving of the many intentions, choices, and actions of all involved leads to the development of population-wide patterns of how we relate to each other that organise and affect our experience of being together. This patterning is nonlinear in the sense that one thing in a process or series of events does not clearly or directly follow from another. Thus, what is going to happen cannot be predicted; the whole is not necessarily the sum of its parts. The identities and differences of those interacting are created by these patterns of relating and affected by power relationships, emotions, norms, and values.
