Organizations as complex adaptive systems: Implications of Complexity Theory for leadership research
Section snippets
An examination of General Systems Theory
According to General Systems Theorists, some systems phenomena were thought to be “… of almost universal significance for all disciplines” (Boulding, 1956, p. 200). These phenomena include populations–or aggregations of individuals in inter-dependent relationships–and the interaction of these individuals with their environment, governed by the principle of equilibrium or homeostasis. Systems were categorized into a hierarchy of nine levels based upon their complexity. Those at the Open System
An examination of Complexity Theory
Complexity Theory is a broad-based movement that contains new tenets about a type of system, referred to as Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). Although its ideas have deep historical roots (Marion, 1999, Simon, 1996), the movement gained ground in the 1980s with formation of the Santa Fe Institute (Pascale, 1999). To some, this “new science” is a paradigm shift from previous science (Wheatley, 1994). Others imply that it is a new paradigm by associating previous science with Modernism and CT with
A comparison of the GST and CT frameworks: properties of open systems and complex adaptive systems
Table 1 contrasts the properties of Open Systems developed by Katz & Kahn (1978) under General Systems Theory with the properties of Complex Adaptive Systems we derive from the literature on Complex Systems. The comparison indicates some similarities and some notable differences. The first three properties–importation of energy, throughput, and output–are unchanged, and reflect that CAS are open systems that interact with their environment in a transformation process. However, there are marked
What is leadership in a Complex Adaptive System?
Complexity Theory has promoted a re-examination of leadership, as much of the leadership lexicon developed under General Systems Theory. While it has been suggested that under CT, leadership may be crucial to the process of self-organization (Knowles, 2001) and leaders might serve as context setters and designers of learning experiences (Brown & Eisenhardt, 1997, Pascale, 1999), further examination is needed to evaluate how leadership in a CAS is similar to, but different from, leadership in an
Leadership and organizational identity
Self-similarity is a critical characteristic of Complex Adaptive Systems; it means that a system exhibits invariance under a change of scale (Morel & Ramanujam, 1999). In a CAS, self-similarity is the basis for variable P, the common schemata shared by system sub-units. Self-similarity is evidenced in the physical world in fractals such as fern leaves and broccoli, which are geometric spaces in which the parts exhibit the quality of the entity's whole. We put forth that, in the organizational
Leadership in a complex adaptive system: appropriate research methodology
Just as the development of Complexity Theory is bringing about new conceptualizations of organizational structure and leadership, it is also bringing about new non-linear and processual research methodologies that are necessary for further design and testing of a CT-based model. While non-linearity can seemingly be modeled using conventional statistical methods by adjusting the pattern recognition algorithm to be sensitive to specific non-linear relationships (Bettis & Prahalad, 1995), this
Conclusion
This article advances Complexity Theory's nascent application to organizational leadership. We have clarified CT's assumptions by comparing them to the assumptions of General Systems Theory; examined the process of leadership in a CAS; illustrated how leadership might influence emergent self-organization through the mediating variables of organizational identity and social movements; and presented appropriate methods for further theory development and testing. We hope that our efforts help to
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