Managing Organizational Complexity

The papers in this volume, as the subtitle suggests, have been divided into three sections, namely: philosophy, theory and application. The logic behind this classification is that papers in the philosophical section approach complexity in a very general way. These papers do not necessarily focus on human organizations or networks, but on complex systems in whatever form they are found (although each author was asked to make an effort at drawing some conclusions for organizational management). The theory section contains papers in which the concepts and ideas of complexity have been applied specifically to human organizations. Rather then being specific applications of complexity thinking in real life organizations, they are more concerned with the question: if human organizations are complex systems, then so what? Again, contributors were asked to offer specific advice to the practicing manager. The chapters comprising the last section offer case studies and application of complexity thinking to real organizations, not hypothetical ones.