Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL

extra shuffle to an already well-shuffled pack of cards. You know it will change your luck, but you
don’t know whether for better or worse.’ (J. Gleick, 1997)
And one more point is important. ‘Chaos and instability … are not the same at all. A chaotic system
could be stable if its particular brand of irregularity persisted in the face of small disturbances’
(J.Gleick). Thus, even misconduct and deviation, such as corruption for example, may be a very
stable feature of the organization, although unpredictable in details. Many things that look
accidental and, strictly speaking, take place accidentally, are caused statistically by certain regular
factors that frame chaos and provide for inevitable repetition of the same modes of behaviour.
The Complexity Theory is sometimes considered to be a branch of Chaos Theory, and addresses
the specific subject of the complex system. “A Complex system … possesses sufficient stability to
carry out memories and sufficient dynamism to process that information. This balance between
order and Chaos enables the ability to reproduce, to change in an orderly fashion, and … to selforganize,
or emerge without outside intervention.” (R. Marion, 1999)
Coherence
Coherence is an energy efficient modality in a chaotic world.
Doc Childre and Bruce Cryer
Coherence is from Latin, cohaerere, and means stick together, or being connected with.
Coherence is what makes the chaos determined, shaping it out of mere disorder. In fact,
coherence begins where total disorder ends – particles start “to see” each other (‘somnabulas
wake up’ as Prigogine would say) and coordinate their behaviour. Water molecules start to dance
in circles of turbulence when the pressure in a pipe gets to certain point. Free electrons stick
together in pairs when the temperature is close to absolute zero, changing the mode of how
electricity flows through a metal – and the resistance of the metal disappears. At certain conditions,
waves of light in a laser get brushed in one direction and are able to transfer tremendous energy
without loss. And so on.
In any case – coherence is always a mode of coordinated behaviour (oriented in a single direction,
synchronized, or correlated in any other sense) of elements that allows them not ‘to act one
against another’ and thereby dissipate a lot of energy into heat without any positive effect. Saving
energy is a law of nature. Due to their interaction, elements may jointly act in a coherent manner,
thus saving energy (rowers in a boat, marching soldiers, etc.).
12