Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL
Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL
Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL
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non-linear, such systems permanently pass through points of bifurcations, thus become very<br />
vulnerable in the face of even the smallest influences when they enter critical moments in time.<br />
Chaos<br />
Where chaos begins, classical science stops.<br />
James Gleick<br />
Unpredictability is closely linked to the concept of chaos, one of the key concepts of synergetic.<br />
The term derives from Greek <strong>and</strong> typically refers to unpredictability. The word, however, did not<br />
mean ‘disorder’. It meant ‘the primal emptiness, space’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos).<br />
A system may be: 1) in a state of stable equilibrium – where the elements are always in, or quickly<br />
return to a state of balance. It may be: 2) in a state of bounded instability (or chaos) – a mixture of<br />
order <strong>and</strong> disorder where the basic patterns of a system’s behaviour can be detected. And it may<br />
be: 3) in a state of explosive instability where there is no any order or pattern. (N. Glass, 1998)<br />
“Chaos Theory describes the behaviour of certain nonlinear dynamical systems that under certain<br />
conditions exhibit a phenomenon known as chaos,” which is “characterized by sensitivity to initial<br />
conditions (e.g. ‘butterfly effect’). As a result of this sensitivity, the behaviour of systems that exhibit<br />
chaos appears to be r<strong>and</strong>om, even though the model of the system is well defined <strong>and</strong> contains no<br />
r<strong>and</strong>om parameters.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_Theory). Still, chaotic behaviour is not the<br />
same as r<strong>and</strong>om behaviour.<br />
“R<strong>and</strong>om behaviour exists when an entity, given choices, is likely to per<strong>for</strong>m any one with equal<br />
probability. Chaotic behaviour, by contrast, is more structured, stable <strong>and</strong> deterministic;<br />
nonetheless it, like r<strong>and</strong>om motion, is still unpredictable. Chaos is descriptive of systems rather<br />
than entities. Systems, of course, are composed of entities, but the corporate behaviour of these<br />
entities is organized by correlation <strong>and</strong> autocatalysis. Consequently, the dynamics of chaotic<br />
structures, like weather systems, fluid turbulence, families, mobs, <strong>and</strong> organizations, are, to<br />
varying extents, patterned <strong>and</strong> stable; even so, their trajectories over time are unpredictable, again<br />
to varying extents.” (R. Marion, 1999)<br />
Chaos in an organization is what management, as well as all other members, influences every day,<br />
but can never control. As James Gleick explains, ‘Yes, you could change the weather. You could<br />
make it do something different from what it would otherwise have done. It would be like giving an<br />
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