Chaos and complexity: An overview of the "new science" in organisation and management

This conceptual contribution presents an English-literature based overview of the chaos and complexity paradigm with a prime focus on organization and management. Some basic concepts, methods and techniques for the diagnosis and design of so-called ‘chaordic enterprises’ are explored, in which emphasis is put on the analysis of wholes in terms of a synthesis of parts (i.e., holons), and in which the research goal is not to determine the largest common denominators, but rather to discover the weak signals as indicators of a new future. Also, it points to the analysis of (real time) dynamical instead of static phenomena, and it asks for the ability to trace emergent processes which substantiate on the basis of intensive interaction of the parts. Because the chaos and complexity field in organization and management is still in its infancy, the goal is to systematically document the development of the new paradigm to date, to evaluate its status as a scientific approach, and to highlight some methodological issues.