In the past decade, complexity-based thinking has exerted increasing, yet somewhat controversial influence over management theory and practice. This has in some part been due to the influence of a number of high-profile articles and the not inconsiderable hype which accompanied them. Another feature of the subject's development has been the diversity of the origins of the thinking and the claims which have been made for it in terms of managerial and organizational implications.
This is the first text to bring this thinking together, presenting some of the most influential writing in the field and showing how the subject has emerged, developed and continues to influence managerial thinking. Seminal contributions to the field have been brought together in a single accessible volume, allowing readers to access what might otherwise appear a very diffuse literature. Moreover, the editors, who represent some of the leading thinkers and writers in this field, have combined these readings with a unique commentary, indicating not only the significance of the papers but teasing out the subtle but significant differences and similarities between them. These commentaries take the form of a discussion between the editors, debating the contribution that each paper has made to the field and the influence it has had on management thinking.
Providing a unique overview, this accessible and thought-provoking reader will be an essential resource for anyone interested in complexity-based approaches.

The contributors to this book are leaders, consultants or managers in organizations who provide narrative accounts of their actual work and daily experience. They explore how the perspective of complex responsive processes assists them to make sense of their experience and so to develop their practice.

Offering a different method of making sense of an individuala (TM)s experience in a rapidly changing world, this book uses reflective accounts of ordinary everyday life in organizations rather than idealized accounts. The editorsa (TM) commentary introduces and contextualizes these experiences as well as drawing out key themes for further research.

What role do values play in organizational life? How do they shape the efficiency and effectiveness of organizational change? This volume examines what we actually mean when we use the term values and what it means to act according to values in ordinary everyday life. The contributors to this volume provide an exposition of the circular relationship between values, conflict, and compromise.
It can be said that current research lacks a thorough exploration of what we actually mean by human values and what it means to act according to values in ordinary, everyday life in organizations. This is what the chapters in this volume seek to address through the reflections of organizational practitioners on their ordinary work in organizations.

Covering subject areas such as organizational theory and behaviour, and organizational analysis as well as the sociology of work and industry, this book will appeal to researchers and practitioners alike.

In the past decade, complexity-based thinking has exerted increasing, yet somewhat controversial influence over management theory and practice. This has in some part been due to the influence of a number of high-profile articles and the not inconsiderable hype which accompanied them. Another feature of the subject's development has been the diversity of the origins of the thinking and the claims which have been made for it in terms of managerial and organizational implications.
This is the first text to bring this thinking together, presenting some of the most influential writing in the field and showing how the subject has emerged, developed and continues to influence managerial thinking. Seminal contributions to the field have been brought together in a single accessible volume, allowing readers to access what might otherwise appear a very diffuse literature. Moreover, the editors, who represent some of the leading thinkers and writers in this field, have combined these readings with a unique commentary, indicating not only the significance of the papers but teasing out the subtle but significant differences and similarities between them. These commentaries take the form of a discussion between the editors, debating the contribution that each paper has made to the field and the influence it has had on management thinking.
Providing a unique overview, this accessible and thought-provoking reader will be an essential resource for anyone interested in complexity-based approaches.

A fundamental problem of public sector governance relates to the very way of thinking it reflects; where organization is thought of as a 'thing', a system designed to deliver what its designers choose. This volume questions that way of thinking and takes a perspective in which organizations are complex responsive processes of relating between people. Bringing together the work of participants on the Doctor of Management program at Hertfordshire University, this book focuses on the move to marketization and managerialism, paying particular attention to human relationships and group dynamics. The contributors provide narrative accounts of their work addressing questions of management, pressures, accountability, responsiveness and traditional systems perspectives. In considering such questions in terms of their daily experience, they explore how the perspective of complex responsive processes assists them in making sense of experience and developing practice. Including an editors' commentary which introduces and contextualizes these experiences as well as drawing out key themes for further research, this book will be of value to academics, students and practitioners looking for reflective accounts of real life experiences rather than further prescriptions of what organizational life ought to be.

A fundamental problem of public sector governance relates to the very way of thinking it reflects; where organization is thought of as a 'thing', a system designed to deliver what its designers choose. This volume questions that way of thinking and takes a perspective in which organizations are complex responsive processes of relating between people. Bringing together the work of participants on the Doctor of Management program at Hertfordshire University, this book focuses on the move to marketization and managerialism, paying particular attention to human relationships and group dynamics. The contributors provide narrative accounts of their work addressing questions of management, pressures, accountability, responsiveness and traditional systems perspectives. In considering such questions in terms of their daily experience, they explore how the perspective of complex responsive processes assists them in making sense of experience and developing practice. Including an editors' commentary which introduces and contextualizes these experiences as well as drawing out key themes for further research, this book will be of value to academics, students and practitioners looking for reflective accounts of real life experiences rather than further prescriptions of what organizational life ought to be.

The second half of the twentieth century witnessed the emergence of the most complex global organizations ever known. Taking a complexity theory perspective, this book explores the key factor that sustains them: leadership.
It examines how leadership is currently understood primarily from a systems based perspective, as an attribute of the individual, the leadership role being to articulate values, missions and visions and then persuade others to adhere to them. The book argues for a new view of ethics as co-created through identity and difference, representing the end of 'business ethics' as we know it today.
In the past we have focused on the choices of individual leaders. In today's highly complex organizations we are now coming to understand the nature of leadership as self-organizing and, as such, closely linked to ethics. Areas considered include:
*risk and conflict
*spontaneity and motivation.

What role do values play in organizational life? How do they shape the efficiency and effectiveness of organizational change? This volume examines what we actually mean when we use the term values and what it means to act according to values in ordinary everyday life. The contributors to this volume provide an exposition of the circular relationship between values, conflict, and compromise.
It can be said that current research lacks a thorough exploration of what we actually mean by human values and what it means to act according to values in ordinary, everyday life in organizations. This is what the chapters in this volume seek to address through the reflections of organizational practitioners on their ordinary work in organizations.

Covering subject areas such as organizational theory and behaviour, and organizational analysis as well as the sociology of work and industry, this book will appeal to researchers and practitioners alike.

The contributors to this book are leaders, consultants or managers in organizations who provide narrative accounts of their actual work and daily experience. They explore how the perspective of complex responsive processes assists them to make sense of their experience and so to develop their practice.

Offering a different method of making sense of an individuala (TM)s experience in a rapidly changing world, this book uses reflective accounts of ordinary everyday life in organizations rather than idealized accounts. The editorsa (TM) commentary introduces and contextualizes these experiences as well as drawing out key themes for further research.

The perspective of complex responsive processes draws on analogies from the complexity sciences, bringing in the essential characteristics of human agents, understood to emerge in social processes of communicative interaction and power-relating. The result is a way of thinking about life in organizations that focuses attention on how organizational members cope with unknown as they perpetually create organizational futures together.
Providing a natural successor to the Editors' earlier series (Complexity and Emergence in Organizations) this series Complexity as the Experience of Organizing, aims to take this work further by taking very seriously the experience of organizational practitioners, and showing how taking the perspective of complex responsive process yields deeper insight into practice and so develops that practice.
In this book, all of the contributors work as leaders, consultants or managers in organizations. They provide narrative accounts of their actual work addressingquestions such as:
- How does the work of the researcher actually assist managers when the uncertainty is so great that they do no know what they are doing yet?
- What does research in organizations actually achieve?
- If patters of human interaction produced nothing but further patterns of human interaction, in the creation of which we are all participating, is there a detached way of understanding organizations from the position of the objective observer?
In considering such questions in terms of their daily experience, the contributors explore how the perspective of complex responsive processes assists them to make sense of their experience and so to develop their practice. "AComplexity Perspective on Researching Organizations" offers a different method for making sense of experience in a rapidly changing world by using reflective accounts of ordinary everyday life in organizations rather than idealized accounts. The editors' commentary introduces and contextualizes these experiences as well as drawing out key themes for further research.
"A Complexity Perspective on Researching Organizations" will be of value to readers from amongst those academics and business school students and practitioners who are looking for reflective accounts of real life experiences of researching in organizations, rather than further prescriptions of what life in organizations ought to be like.

The second half of the Twentieth Century witnessed the emergence of the most complex global organizations ever known. Taking a complexity theory perspective, this book explores the key factor that sustains them: leadership.
The book examines how leadership is currently understood primarily from a systems based perspective, as an attribute of the individual, the leadership role being to articulate values, missions and visions and then persuade others to adhere to them. It argues for a new view of ethics as co-created through identity and difference, representing the end of 'business ethics' as we know it today.
In the past we have focused on the choices of individual leaders. In today's highly complex organizations we are now coming to understand the nature of leadership as self-organizing and, as such, closely linked to ethics. This means that we can no longer understand ethics simply as centered rational choice in planning and action. Areas considered include:
*risk and conflict
*spontaneity and motivation

The perspective of complex responsive processes draws on analogies from the complexity sciences, bringing in the essential characteristics of human agents, understood to emerge in social processes of communicative interaction and power-relating. The result is a way of thinking about life in organizations that focuses attention on how organizational members cope with unknown as they perpetually create organizational futures together.
Providing a natural successor to the Editors' earlier series (Complexity and Emergence in Organizations) this series Complexity as the Experience of Organizing, aims to take this work further by taking very seriously the experience of organizational practitioners, and showing how taking the perspective of complex responsive process yields deeper insight into practice and so develops that practice.
In this book, all of the contributors work as leaders, consultants or managers in organizations. They provide narrative accounts of their actual work addressingquestions such as:
- How does the work of the researcher actually assist managers when the uncertainty is so great that they do no know what they are doing yet?
- What does research in organizations actually achieve?
- If patters of human interaction produced nothing but further patterns of human interaction, in the creation of which we are all participating, is there a detached way of understanding organizations from the position of the objective observer?
In considering such questions in terms of their daily experience, the contributors explore how the perspective of complex responsive processes assists them to make sense of their experience and so to develop their practice. "AComplexity Perspective on Researching Organizations" offers a different method for making sense of experience in a rapidly changing world by using reflective accounts of ordinary everyday life in organizations rather than idealized accounts. The editors' commentary introduces and contextualizes these experiences as well as drawing out key themes for further research.
"A Complexity Perspective on Researching Organizations" will be of value to readers from amongst those academics and business school students and practitioners who are looking for reflective accounts of real life experiences of researching in organizations, rather than further prescriptions of what life in organizations ought to be like.