Organizational Complexity |
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Complexity science is slowly shaping the way we think today and is expected to
further change the way we approach organizations and their collective actions.
In particular, much of the past command and control approach to business is
evolving to one of influence and adaptive learning. This is a true
paradigm shift that can only be fully understood once the shift has been
personally experienced. Until then, parts will be discounted as not being
applicable or just blue-sky ideas. The attempt here is to help
organize this rapidly evolving field of study so that practitioners can
understand the emerging theory and move it closer to practice.
The result is dependent on the initial conditions and small changes may produce a significant change in the final result and vice versa. Large changes in initial conditions may produce little change in the final result. This can be observed in how a nonlinear equation changes with different starting values. Download this Excel spreadsheet and observe how the plotted values change as the starting value changes. To see this easier, a macro was established to increment the starting value each time the button is pushed. For example, observe the changes when incrementing from 2 to 4 by .05. What is interesting is how the patterns morph into different patterns. Every once in awhile there is a discontinuous jump in patterns with some becoming chaotic, but with a pattern again emerging abruptly. Reduce the incremental value to observe these critical points in more detail. To get a closer look at one interesting zone, start at 3.73 and increment by .001.
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Last modified: May 22, 2007