What Newton′s Principia was to his natural science colleagues, Russ Marion′s The Edge of Organization is to today′s social scientists. This book clearly elucidates the arrival of the social sciences at the end of the alley of modernism but then presents us with the tools and ideas to climb out of a dead end, rise above old limitations, and take flight for new horizons bright with promise for advancing both theory and praxis. . . . For social scientists, it is both the most relevant and most easily apprehended treatment to date of the totality of chaos and complexity theory and technique. –Raymond A. Eve, Editor, Chaos, Complexity, and Sociology The Edge of Organization offers a readable, comprehensive, and integrated overview of the new sciences of chaos and complexity. Author Russ Marion describes formal and social organizations from the perspective of chaos and complexity theories. His multidisciplinary approach will appeal to students and scholars across a wide range of social sciences. This book is generously illustrated and includes comprehensive references plus an annotated bibliography of useful books and articles. The Edge of Organization will appeal to students and professionals in sociology, management/ organization studies, management studies, marketing, political science, public administration, and psychology.
Cuprins
The Edge of Organization
Chaos and Organization
Organization at the Edge
Shifting Historical Premises to the Edge of Chaos
A Nonlinear Redaction of Open Systems
Structural Contingency Theory
Differentiation and Awareness
Footprints of Complexity
The Nature of Order
Resource Dependency
The Emergence of Order
Organizations in Wonderland
Enacted Environment
Coupling at the Edge
Darwin and Organizations, Goats and Monkeys
Pushing the Envelope
Limiting Organizational Expansion
Changing Complex Organizations
Stability and Change at the Edge
Researching Social Chaos and Complexity
Epilogue on Einstein′s Island