Common Change Management Errors (2 cont. g)
More On Complexity
Complex Systems
Introduction
Complex refers to being diverse and composed of multiple, interconnected elements.
The components of complex systems include emergence, self-organisation (includes pattern formation), collective behaviour, networks, evolution & adaptation, systems theory, nonlinear dynamics and game theory.
These components are used to explain complex systems that consist of a large number of mutually interacting and integrated parts. They are used in many disciplines and we are only looking at their relevance to organisational change management
1. Emergence
"...occurs when an identity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties for behaviours which emerge only when the parts interact in the wider whole......The whole is other than the sum of its parts......A whole account is not merely more, but very different from the sum of its parts..."
Wikipedia, 2022g
It behaviour can be hard to predict as
"...The number of interactions between a system's components increases exponentially with the number of components, thus allowing for many new and subtle types of behaviour to merge. Emergence is often a product of a particular pattern of interaction. Negative feedback introduces constraints that serve to fixed structures or behaviours. In contrast, positive feedback promotes change, allowing local variations to grow to global patterns..."
Wikipedia, 2022g
Need to be careful that a large number of interactions can just create a lot of noise and even hinder the emergence of interesting behaviour; unintended consequences and side effects can occur
"...in some cases, the system has to reach a combined threshold of diversity, organisation, and connectivity for emergent behaviour appears......Whenever there is a multitude of individuals interacting, and order emerges from disorder; a pattern, a decision, a structure, or a change in direction occurs..."
Wikipedia, 2022g
Some examples include flocks of birds, schools of fish, moving sand dunes, colonies of ants, swarms of bees, herds/packs of animals, hurricanes, bureaucracy (individual departments may behave differently from that of the bureaucracy), consciousness, human beings (social bonds, relationships, etc), vehicle traffic using roundabouts, open-source software, worldwide web and Internet, stock market, etc
2. Self-organisation (is a process where some form of overall order arises from local interactions between parts of initially disordered system, ie capable of governing itself; interaction can be spontaneous, if sufficient energy is available; can be triggered by random fluctuations and amplified by positive feedback; it is usually decentralised, ie
"...It is typically robust and able to survive and self-repair substantial perturbation......like islands of predictability in a sea of chaotic unpredictability..."
Wikipedia, 2022h
Entropy can be understood as disorder.
It requires 4 basic ingredients
"...i) strong dynamical non-linearity, often (though not necessarily) involving positive and negative feedback
ii) balance of exploitation and exploration
iii) multiple interactions
iv) availability of energy (to overcome the natural tendency toward entropy, or loss of free energy)..."
Wikipedia, 2022h)
Some examples include animals swarming, neural circuits, black markets, critical mass, herd behaviour, groupthink, market economy, road traffic and pedestrian movement, etc
Part of self-organisation can be pattern formation, ie
"...deals with the visible orderly outcomes of self-organisation and the common principles behind similar patterns in nature..."
Wikipedia, 2022d)
3. Collective Behaviour (refers to social processes and events which do not reflect existing social norms or structure (laws, conventions, institutions, etc) which emerge in a spontaneous way; this generally violates societal norms and can be tremendously destructive like riots, violent, fads, stock-market bubbles and crashes, group think, etc; as driven by group dynamics, people can engage in acts that they would not do otherwise; there are 4 forms:
i) the crowd (it is a group of like-minded people; remember: a group has no conscience; it is emotional
"...Crowds induce people to lose their ability to think rationally..."
Gustave LeBon as quoted by Wikipedia, 2022a
It is claimed that there are 3 types of crowd mentality mindset
a) panic (an expression of fear)
b) craze (an expression of joy)
c) hostile (an expression of anger)
ii) public (focuses on a single issue)
iii) mass (use of mass media to address and influence an audience, eg print, radio, TV, Internet, etc)
iv) social movement (try to change society or individuals; can be active like the French Revolution and expressive like Alcoholics Anonymous)
4. Networks (basis of social network analysis - for more details, see elsewhere in this Knowledge Base
"...study of network representations of physical, biological, social phenomena leading to be effective models of these phenomena..."
Wikipedia, 2022 b
Can be used to understand the diffusion of innovations, communications (like ideas, news, information, rumour, etc), health issues, relationships (social, political, economic, demographic, etc)
It shows the degree of connectedness.)
5. Evolution & Adaptation (the theory of evolution through natural selection, ie a 'struggle for existence' in which favourable genetical variation prevailed and others perished; species that best adapts to the environment, has the best chance of surviving and thriving.
Even though these concepts were initially applied to be natural world, they do have application in organisations, ie in competitive industries and ever-changing environments, eg with technology, organisations have the need to upgrade regularly and rapidly to survive and thrive, ie survival of the fittest. You can compare an organ's chromosome (DNA) to the culture of an organisation, ie DNA, as your genetic make-up, is the backbone to who you are, as culture is to an organisation)
6. System Theories and Cybernetics (involves
i) System Theories
"...an interdisciplinary study of systems, ie cohesive group of interrelated, interdependent parts that can be natural or human-made. Every system is bound by space and time, influenced by its environment, defined by structure and purpose, and expressed through its functioning. A system may be more than the sum of its parts if it expresses synergy and emergent behaviour.
Change in one part of the system may affect other parts or the whole system. May be possible to predict these changes in patterns of behaviour. Systems that learn and adapt, the growth and the degree of adaptation depends upon how well the system engages with its environment. The goals of system theory are to model a system's dynamic, constraints, conditions and to elucidate principles (such as purpose, measure, methods tools etc,..."
Wikipedia, 2022e
Usually involves more than one field of knowledge or discipline.
"...it distinguishes between dynamic or active systems from static or passive systems. Active systems are activity structures or components interacting in behaviours and processes. Passive systems are structures and components that are being processed..."
Wikipedia, 2022e
It is based on a couple of fundamental ideas
- all phenomena can be viewed as a web of relationships among elements, or a system
- all systems are common patterns, behaviours and properties that can be analysed and used to develop greater insights into the behaviour of complex phenomena
(for more detail, see elsewhere in the Knowledge Base)
ii) Cybernetics
System theory and cybernetics are interchangeable. However, cybernetics generally includes feedback loops and is described as the
"...study of the communication and control of regulatory feedback both in living and lifeless systems (organisms, organisations, machines), and in combination of those. Its focus is on how anything (digital, mechanical or biological) controls its behaviour, processes information, reacts to information, and changes..."
Wikipedia, 2022e
7. Nonlinear Dynamics
"...it is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input..."
Wikipedia, 2022f
As a result,changes in variables over time may appear chaotic, unpredictable, counter-intuitive, etc
8. Game Theory
"...It is a study of mathematical models of strategic interactions amongst rational agents......applies to a wide range of behavioural relations......an umbrella term for the science of logical decision-making..."
Wikipedia, 2022c
It has been used to describe, understand, explain, predict and model behaviour of human populations, including behaviour of firms, markets, consumers, etc. It has been applied to auctions, bargaining, mergers and acquisitions, duopolies, oligopolies, project management, etc..
It assumes that every player
- has no unilateral incentive to deviate from their strategy
- is making rational decisions and their behaviour reflects this.
NB These assumptions can be criticised as unrealistic, ie not real-world.
An example is cooperative/non-cooperative
- co-operative (its players are able to form binding commitments that are externally enforced, like the contracts; they
"...focus on predicting which coalition will form, the joint actions that groups take, and the resulting collective pay-offs..."
Wikipedia, 2022c)
- non-cooperative (occurs where players cannot form alliances or if all agreements need self-enforcing, like through a credible threat; they
"...focus on predicting individual players actions and payoffs and analysing Nash's equalibria..."
NB The Nash equilibrium notion assumes that each player knows the equilibrium strategies of the other players and no player has anything to gain by changing their own strategy.
Private incentives can lead to the deterioration of public good.
