The SAGE Handbook of Complexity and Management is the first substantive scholarly work to provide a map of the state of art research in the growing field emerging at the intersection of complexity science and management studies. Edited and written by internationally respected scholars from management and related disciplines, the Handbook will be the definitive reference source for understanding the implications of complexity science for management research and practice.
Part One: Foundations introduces complexity science and its implications for the foundations of scientific knowledge, including management knowledge.
Part Two: Applications presents the numerous ways in which complexity science models and tools, as well as complexity thinking, are being applied to management and organizational phenomena and the insights gained as a result.
Part Three: Interfaces highlights how complexity science is transforming various non-management fields and, in so doing, creating exciting interfaces for bridging between management and related disciplines.
Table of Content
Introduction – Peter Allen, Steve Maguire and Bill Mc Kelvey
PART ONE: FOUNDATIONS
Key Concepts
Complexity and Systems Thinking – Yasmin Merali and Peter Allen
Complexity Science and Organization – Raymond-Alain Thietart and Bérnard Forgues
Emergence in Complex Systems – Jeffrey Goldstein
Constructing and Appreciating Complexity – Steve Maguire
Thoughts on Complexity and Computational Models – Michael J. Prietula
Epistemological Perspectives and Considerations
A Scientific Realist Epistemology for Complexity Science – Bill Mc Kelvey
Exploring Organizational Effectiveness: The Value of Complex Realism as a Frame of Reference and Systematic Comparison as a Method – David Byrne
Complexity, Post-Structuralism and Organization – Paul Cilliers
Causality and Explanation – Alicia Juarrero
Complexity and Limits to Knowledge: The Importance of Uncertainty – Peter Allen and Jean Boulton
Complex Thinking: Towards an Oblique Strategy for Dealing with the Complex – Robert Chia
Methodological Implications and Tools
Applications of Kauffman′s Co-Evolutionary NKCS Model to Management and Organization Studies – Richard Vigden and Larry Bull
Using Genetic Algorithms to Model Strategic Interaction – William Martin Tracy
Organizing at the Edge of Chaos: Insights from Action Research – Donald Maclean and Robert Macintosh
From Skew Distributions to Power-Law Science – Pierpaolo Andriani and Bill Mc Kelvey
PART TWO: APPLICATIONS
Complexity and Organizing
Complexity and Organization-Environment Relations: Revisiting Ashby′s Law of Requisite Variety – Max Boisot and Bill Mc Kelvey
The Complexity of Industrial Ecosystems: Classification and Computational Modelling – James Baldwin
Complexity and the Dynamics of Organizational Change – Glenda H. Eoyang
Complex Thought, Simple Talk: An Ecological Approach to Language-Based Change in Organizations – John Shotter and Haridimos Tsoukas
Organizational Learning and Complexity Science: Exploring the Joint Potential – Eve Mitleton-Kelly and Ben Ramalingam
Complexity and Management: A Pluralistic View – Kurt A. Richardson
Complexity and Managing
Implications of Complexity Science for the Study of Leadership – Russ Marion and Mary Uhl-Bien
A Complexity Perspective on Strategic Human Resource Management – Barry A. Colbert and Elizabeth C. Kurucz
Complexity and the Rise of Distributed Control in Operations Management – Arash Azadegan and Kevin J. Dooley
Knowledge Management and Complexity – Max Boisot
Complexity and Innovation – Pierpaolo Andriani
Complexity Science Contributions to the Field of Entrepreneurship – Benyamin B. Lichtenstein
Complexity and Competitive Advantage – Oliver Baumann and Nicolaj Siggelkow
Complexity Theory and Corporate Strategy – Kathleen M. Eisenhardt and Henning Piezunka
More than a Metaphor: Complexity and the New Rules of Management – James K. Hazy
PART THREE: INTERFACES
Non-Linear Dynamical Systems Applications to Psychology and Management – Stephen J. Guastello
The Value in Between: Organizations as Adapting and Evolving Networks – Ce[ac]sar A. Hidalgo
The Use of Complexity for Policy Exploration – Steven Bankes
Complexity, Habits and Evolution – Geoffrey M. Hodgson
Economics Management and Complex Systems – Paul Ormerod
How Complexity Science Is Transforming Health Care – Brenda Zimmerman
About the author
Bill Mc Kelvey received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1967 and is currently Professor of Strategic
Organizing and Complexity Science at the UCLA. His book, Organizational Systematics (1982) remains the definitive treatment
of organizational evolution and taxonomy. In 1997 he became Director of the
Center for Rescuing Strategy and Organization Science (SOS). He was a founder
of UCLA’s Center for Human Complex Systems & Computational Social Science.
Recently Mc Kelvey co-edited Variations in
Organization Science (1999) and a special issue of the journal, Emergence. Forthcoming book is: Complexity
Dynamics in Organizations: Applications of Order-Creation Science
(Cambridge University Press).