Beyond hierarchy: a complexity management perspective

Purpose – This paper aims to contribute to current research on complexity management by re‐visiting Beer's paradigm on control and self‐organization and explaining its usefulness to support non‐hierarchical organizations and networks and its complementarities to new development in complexity sciences.Design/methodology/approach – The paper explains the current crisis of hierarchical structures and then summarises new proposals on non‐hierarchical organizations from the perspective of complexity sciences. It then summarises Beer's provenance of control and, in particular, the ideas of requisite variety and meta‐systemic management. It explains how these ideas transform the way of approaching management and presents examples of real‐life businesses transformed by following this approach.Findings – The analysis highlights limitations in current management theory and practice that can be overcome by embracing the paradigm of control suggested by some of the pioneer cybernetitians. It shows that the model has ...

[1]  I. Nonaka,et al.  The Knowledge Creating Company , 2008 .

[2]  Markus Schwaninger.  THE EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL CYBERNETICS , 2006 .

[3]  Michael X Cohen,et al.  Harnessing Complexity: Organizational Implications of a Scientific Frontier , 2000 .

[4]  Raul Espejo,et al.  The Viable System Model , 2020, Systems Approaches to Making Change: A Practical Guide.

[5]  Peter Checkland,et al.  Diagnosing the system for organizations: S. BEER Wiley, Chichester, 1985, 152 + xiii pages, £7.50 , 1986 .

[6]  Markus Schwaninger,et al.  Intelligent Organizations: An Integrative Framework , 2001 .

[7]  Peter M. Senge,et al.  The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations , 1999 .

[8]  W. Powell,et al.  Interorganizational Collaboration and the Locus of Innovation: Networks of Learning in Biotechnology. , 1996 .

[9]  Maurice Yolles,et al.  Organizations as Complex Systems: An Introduction to Knowledge Cybernetics , 2006 .

[10]  Judy C. Shetler,et al.  Building Cooperation in a Competitive Industry: Sematech and the Semiconductor Industry , 1995 .

[11]  Raul Espejo.  Auditing as a Trust Creation Process , 2001 .

[12]  Raul Espejo,et al.  The State of the State: Introduction , 2001 .

[13]  W. McCulloch,et al.  Embodiments of Mind , 1966 .

[14]  S. Beer.  The Brain of the Firm , 1972 .

[15]  Mik Wisniewski,et al.  Beyond Dispute: The Invention of Team Syntegrity , 1994 .

[16]  R. Axelrod,et al.  The Complexity of Cooperation: Agent-Based Models of Competition and Collaboration , 1998 .

[17]  Nigel Howard,et al.  Organisational Fitness: Corporate Effectiveness Through Management Cybernetics , 1995 .

[18]  Frederick P. Wheeler,et al.  The Viable System Model: Interpretations and Applications of Stafford Beer's VSM , 1990 .

[19]  Markus Schwaninger,et al.  Design for viable organizations: The diagnostic power of the viable system model , 2006 .

[20]  P. Adler.  Market, Hierarchy, and Trust: The Knowledge Economy and the Future of Capitalism , 2001 .

[21]  W. Hamilton,et al.  The Evolution of Cooperation , 1984 .

[22]  Cynthia F. Kurtz,et al.  The new dynamics of strategy: sense-making in a complex and complicated world , 2003, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[23]  Stafford Beer,et al.  Decision and Control: The Meaning of Operational Research and Management Cybernetics , 1966 .

[24]  P. Adler,et al.  Social Capital: Prospects for a New Concept , 2002 .

[25]  W. Ashby,et al.  An Introduction to Cybernetics , 1957 .

[26]  H. Foerster.  Understanding Understanding , 2002, Springer New York.

[27]  D. Ingber.  The architecture of life. , 1998, Scientific American.

[28]  A. Giddens.  The Constitution of Society , 1985 .

[29]  R. Stacey.  Complexity and Creativity in Organizations , 1996 .

[30]  J. Walker,et al.  ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT REVISITED: LESSONS FROM A CYBERNETIC INTERVENTION IN COLOMBIA , 2006, Cybern. Syst..

[31]  Cor van Dijkum.  From cybernetics to the science of complexity , 1997 .

[32]  Markus Schwaninger.  Intelligent Organizations: Powerful Models for Systemic Management , 2006 .

[33]  H. Maturana,et al.  The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding , 2007 .

[34]  Stafford Beer,et al.  Platform for Change , 1995 .

[35]  Steve Clarke,et al.  Beyond Knowledge Management , 2003 .

[36]  A. Espinosa,et al.  Cybernetics and Participation: From Theory to Practice , 2005 .

[37]  Cristiano Castelfranchi,et al.  Through the agents' minds: Cognitive mediators of social action , 2000 .

[38]  J. March.  Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning , 1991, STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI.

[39]  H. Maturana,et al.  Autopoiesis and Cognition : The Realization of the Living (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Scie , 1980 .

[40]  Angela Espinosa,et al.  A cybernetic re-evaluation of socio-economic development programs , 2006, Kybernetes.

[41]  Raul Espejo,et al.  Aspects of identity, cohesion, citizenship and performance in recursive organisations , 1999 .

[42]  Shann Turnbull,et al.  Design Criteria for a Global Brain , 2001 .