scholarly journals The viable decision maker for CAS survival: how to change and adapt through fitting process

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 1006-1023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Carrubbo ◽  
Francesca Iandolo ◽  
Valentina Pitardi ◽  
Mario Calabrese
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Maker ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Organizational Design ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
General Process ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Complex Adaptive

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the decision-making process in the management of the complex adaptive systems (CAS), particularly focusing on the dimensions that affect the individual decision maker (DM) when passing from decision to behavior in fitting processes. Although the importance of the general process of fitting in terms of organizational design has been highlighted in earlier studies, a closer focus on the DM perspective is required. Design/methodology/approach Starting from the theoretical frameworks of viable systems approach (vSa) and addressing the evolving concepts of change and adaptation in CAS, the work takes the DM perspective and investigates the dimensions involved in the paths that lead complex decisions into behaviors, when referring to fitting processes. The paper reviews the vSa and the concept of CAS, deepening the decision making in fitting processes. Then, the paper proceeds to discuss the schemes and the categories that affect, at different levels, the decision and behavioral choices by proposing an interpretative framework. Findings The paper proposes a general framework useful to recognize/identify which are the elements/dimensions that have to be considered when organizations change in pursuing survival. The findings of the paper also show how adopting a vSa as a meta-model can be insightful to the understanding of service systems and useful in fully comprehending decision-making processes and behavior in complex adaptive system. Originality/value The originality of this paper lies in exploring the decision making process in CAS, adopting a closer perspective on the single DM through the lens of the vSa.

scholarly journals Participation in Decision Making as a Property of Complex Adaptive Systems: Developing and Testing a Measure

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth A. Anderson ◽  
Donde Plowman ◽  
Kirsten Corazzini ◽  
Pi-Ching Hsieh ◽  
Hui Fang Su ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Discriminant Validity ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Organizational Level ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Participation In Decision Making ◽  
Level Property

Objectives.To (1) describe participation in decision-making as a systems-level property of complex adaptive systems and (2) present empirical evidence of reliability and validity of a corresponding measure.Method.Study 1 was a mail survey of a single respondent (administrators or directors of nursing) in each of 197 nursing homes. Study 2 was a field study using random, proportionally stratified sampling procedure that included 195 organizations with 3,968 respondents.Analysis.In Study 1, we analyzed the data to reduce the number of scale items and establish initial reliability and validity. In Study 2, we strengthened the psychometric test using a large sample.Results.Results demonstrated validity and reliability of the participation in decision-making instrument (PDMI) while measuring participation of workers in two distinct job categories (RNs and CNAs). We established reliability at the organizational level aggregated items scores. We established validity of the multidimensional properties using convergent and discriminant validity and confirmatory factor analysis.Conclusions.Participation in decision making, when modeled as a systems-level property of organization, has multiple dimensions and is more complex than is being traditionally measured. Managers can use this model to form decision teams that maximize the depth and breadth of expertise needed and to foster connection among them.

Strategy in the era of “swans”: the role of strategic leadership under uncertainty and unpredictability

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Adobor ◽  
William Phanuel Kofi Darbi ◽  
Obi Berko O. Damoah
Keyword(s):  
Mental Models ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Strategic Leadership ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Complexity Leadership ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Strategic Leaders ◽  
Impact Events

PurposeThe purpose of this conceptual paper is to explore the role of strategic leadership under conditions of uncertainty and unpredictability. The authors argue that highly improbable, but high-impact events require the upper echelons of management, traditionally the custodians of strategy formulation to offer a new kind of strategic leadership focused on new mindsets, organizational capabilities, more in tune with high uncertainty and unpredictability.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on strategic leadership, and complexity leadership theory, the authors review the literature and present a conceptual framework for exploring the nature of strategic leadership under uncertainty. The authors conceptualize organizations as complex adaptive systems and discuss the imperatives for developing new mental models for emergent leadership.FindingsStrategic leaders have a key role to play in preparing their organizations for episodic disruptions. These include developing their adaptive capabilities and building resilient organizations to ensure their organizations cannot only bounce back after a disruption but have the capacity for transformation to new fitness levels when necessary. Strategic leaders must engage with complexity leadership by seeing their organizations as complex adaptive systems, reconfigure their leadership approaches and organizations to build strategic adaptive capability.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a conceptual paper and the authors cannot make any claims of causality.Practical implicationsOrganizational leaders need to reconfigure their mental models and leadership approaches to reflect the new normal of uncertainty and unpredictability. Developing the strategic adaptive capability of organizations should prepare them for dealing with high impact events. To assure business continuity in the face of disruptions requires building flexible, adaptable business models.Originality/valueThe paper focuses on how managers can offer strategic leadership for a new normal that challenges some of our most cherished leadership and strategic management paradigms. The authors explore the new mental models and leadership models in an era of great uncertainty.

Complex Adaptive Systems Thinking Approach for Intelligence Base in Support of Intellectual Capital Management

2013 ◽  
pp. 122-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Rabaey
Keyword(s):  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Intellectual Capital ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Organizational Design ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Systems Thinking Approach

This chapter introduces Complex Adaptive Systems Thinking (CAST) into the domain of Intellectual Capital (IC). CAST is based on the theories of Complex Adaptive System (CAS) and Systems Thinking (ST). It argues that the CAST, combined with Intelligence Base offers a potentially more holistic approach to managing the Intellectual Capital of an organization. Furthermore, the authors extend this IC management with additional dimensions proper to a social entity such as an organization. New organizational design methods are needed and the capability approach is such a method that supports IC in virtual and real organizations. The characteristics of Intellectual Capital are discussed in the iterative process of inquiry and the Cynefin Framework, guaranteeing a holistic view on the organization and its environment.

scholarly journals Smallholder value chains as complex adaptive systems: a conceptual framework

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alastair Orr ◽  
Jason Donovan ◽  
Dietmar Stoian
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Sudden Change ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Complex Adaptive

Purpose Smallholder value chains are dynamic, changing over time in sudden, unpredictable ways as they adapt to shocks. Understanding these dynamics and adaptation is essential for these chains to remain competitive in turbulent markets. Many guides to value chain development, though they focus welcome attention on snapshots of current structure and performance, pay limited attention to the dynamic forces affecting these chains or to adaptation. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This paper develops an expanded conceptual framework to understand value chain performance based on the theory of complex adaptive systems. The framework combines seven common properties of complex systems: time, uncertainty, sensitivity to initial conditions, endogenous shocks, sudden change, interacting agents and adaptation. Findings The authors outline how the framework can be used to ask new research questions and analyze case studies in order to improve our understanding of the development of smallholder value chains and their capacity for adaptation. Research limitations/implications The framework highlights the need for greater attention to value chain dynamics. Originality/value The framework offers a new perspective on the dynamics of smallholder value chains.

scholarly journals Public Reform Paradoxes and the Old Effectiveness–Efficiency Problem

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 501-529
Author(s):  
Mirko Pečarič
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Or Methodology ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
Effectiveness And Efficiency

Although effectiveness and efficiency are old comrades of public administrations, they still often cause unintended consequences. The relation between (absent) effectiveness and (overly emphasised) efficiency remains unresolved. The paper shows that effectiveness and efficiency are still used interchangeably, and despite the presence of negative effects, it comes as a surprise that important documents still address these terms without procedure or methodology to provide the content whereby they could be more clearly elaborated. Not only is the goal to achieve clearer meaning, but to accomplish results with the fewest possible negative effects. Alongside different management reforms, decision-makers must not lose sight of the whole; all reforms are only specific answers to inadequate previous ones, and it could be valuable to take a step back to see how/why different reforms emerge. The paper addresses the success/failure of reforms and the outcomes thereof. It claims the core problem of rational decision-making lies not in rationality per se, but in a lack of concept and/or insufficient attention to the behaviour of complex adaptive systems. With the help of complex adaptive systems, cybernetics, and combinations of effectiveness and efficiency, the paper presents the essential elements for adaptive (human) decision-making (such as diversity, variation, selection, adaptation, and integration) as the framework whereby unintended, reverse, and neutral effects can be reduced. New rules/decisions should be based on different levels of planning and adaptation, and on moving from the general to the more specific, in accordance with context specificity and unplanned, emergent things. It seems the hardest thing to address is the human character that does not (want to) recognise a situation as the situation in which some things must be spotted, evaluated, and changed if needed.

How can a municipal government continue operations during megadisasters? An analysis of preparedness using complex adaptive systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 779-792
Author(s):  
Masahiko Haraguchi
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Continuity Planning ◽  
Complex Adaptive

PurposeThis paper aims to examine how government continuity planning contributes to strengthening the public sector's emergency preparedness, resulting in enhanced resilience of the public sector. Government continuity plans (GCPs) are a recently focused concept in disaster preparedness, compared to business continuity plans (BCPs) in the private sector. The need for BCPs was widely recognized after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) and the 2011 Thailand Floods. However, recent disasters, such as the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake in Japan, have revealed that local governments without effective GCPs were severely affected by disasters, preventing them from quickly responding to or recovering from disasters. When the GEJE occurred in 2011, only 11% of municipal governments in Japan had GCPs.Design/methodology/approachThe paper analyzes basic principles of government continuity planning using complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory while summarizing recent developments in theory and practice of government continuity planning.FindingsThis research investigates the Japanese experience of GCPs using self-organization, one of the concepts of CAS. A GCP will complement regional disaster plans, which often focus on what governments should do to protect citizens during emergencies but fail to outline how governments should prepare for an emergency operation. The study concludes that GCPs contribute to increased resilience among the public sector in terms of robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness and rapidity.Practical implicationsThis paper includes implications for the development and improvement of a GCP's operational guideline.Originality/valueThis research fulfills an identified need to investigate the effectiveness of a GCP for resilience in the public sector and how to improve its operation using concepts of CAS.

scholarly journals Optimality of Social Choice Systems: Complexity, Wisdom, and Wellbeing Centrality

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Boik
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Research And Development ◽  
Social Choice ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Field Testing ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Multidisciplinary Program ◽  
Wise Decision ◽  
Complex Adaptive

Since circa 1900, civilization has experienced radical changes including changes in the size and distribution of populations, the power of technologies, the magnitude of energy and materials use, and the depth of scientific knowledge. With these have come increasingly complex challenges and elevated risks, and thus a heightened need for wise decision making. Accordingly, the need has grown for efficient and functional decision-making systems, also called social choice systems. I use these terms to refer to economic, governance, and legal systems. The seeming inability of societies, both individually and collectively, to effectively mitigate excessive climate change, poverty, income inequality, pollution, habitat loss, and other major problems suggests that underlying social choice systems are sub-optimal relative to need. I raise two overarching questions: (1) What characteristics would more optimal social choice systems exhibit? (2) How could research and development of more optimal systems best proceed? The answers I explore in this paper are based on the premise that the relative optimality of a social choice system is a measure of its relative capacity to help communities solve problems and organize activities such that collective wellbeing is elevated. The characteristics of complex adaptive systems, successful problem-solving systems found in nature, are explored in order to suggest useful design motifs and monitoring indicators. I emphasize the need for research and development of new social choice system designs, and argue that field testing of these can best occur at the local (e.g., community, city, or county) level. Efforts in this direction by the science and technology sectors and academic community are still nascent. The work described here suggests a new multidisciplinary program that I term wellbeing centrality: the design, testing, promotion, and operation of social choice systems that place wellbeing measurement, evaluation, forecasting, and deliberation at the center of decision-making activities.

A Complex Adaptive Systems-Based Enterprise Knowledge Sharing Model

2011 ◽  
pp. 35-59
Author(s):  
Cynthia T. Small ◽  
Andrew P. Sage
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Knowledge Workers ◽  
Emergent Behavior ◽  
Agent Simulation ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Multi Agent

This paper describes a complex adaptive systems (CAS)-based enterprise knowledge-sharing (KnS) model. The CAS-based enterprise KnS model consists of a CAS-based KnS framework and a multi-agent simulation model. Enterprise knowledge sharing is modeled as the emergent behavior of knowledge workers interacting with the KnS environment and other knowledge workers. The CAS-based enterprise KnS model is developed to aid knowledge management (KM) leadership and other KnS researchers in gaining an enhanced understanding of KnS behavior and its influences. A premise of this research is that a better understanding of KnS influences can result in enhanced decision-making of KnS interventions that can result in improvements in KnS behavior.

A Complex Adaptive Systems-Based Enterprise Knowledge Sharing Model

2009 ◽  
pp. 281-300
Author(s):  
Andrew P. Sage ◽  
Cynthia T. Small
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Knowledge Workers ◽  
Emergent Behavior ◽  
Agent Simulation ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Multi Agent

This chapter describes a complex adaptive systems (CAS)-based enterprise knowledge-sharing (KnS) model. The CAS-based enterprise KnS model consists of a CAS-based KnS framework and a multi-agent simulation model. Enterprise knowledge sharing is modeled as the emergent behavior of knowledge workers interacting with the KnS environment and other knowledge workers. The CAS-based enterprise KnS model is developed to aid Knowledge Management (KM) leadership and other KnS researchers in gaining an enhanced understanding of KnS behavior and its influences. A premise of this research is that a better understanding of KnS influences can result in enhanced decision-making of KnS interventions that can result in improvements in KnS behavior.

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