ABSTRACT
Our understanding of social groups and organizations has progressed by gradual increments over the last century and then, suddenly, there was a very different theory-one that emphasizes the footprints of change and the many shapes and sizes that there could be. Nonlinear dynamical systems theory (NDS), which is also known colloquially as chaos theory or complexity theory, is the study of the events that change over time and space. By nonlinear we are calling attention to the uneven change of events over time, and the disproportionate responses that systems make when we try to affect or control them in some manner. Sometimes a small intervention has a dramatic impact. Sometimes a large plan accomplishes very little.
