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