Creative Management of Complex Systems

5Managerial Approaches and Theories of the Firm

Over the last two decades, complex systems have drawn the attention of numerous researchers from different disciplines. Allen et al. (2011, p. 2) remind us precisely that complexity cannot be studied in a monodisciplinary framework. Each discipline offers its own methods, approaches and measures, and all converge towards common definitions. Rarely can one find fields of transdisciplinary research where the advances in one domain (e.g. cybernetics) are considered by another discipline (e.g. philosophy) to then inspire the practices of a third (e.g. management) with considerable transparency and respect between the various disciplines. It is true that no discipline can claim to have an answer to every question related to complexity, which obligates a rather rare sort of mutual respect upon authors.

A complex system is made up of interacting parts forming a “whole”. Each of these parts is governed by a set of rules, routines or forces that determine their behavior at a given moment based on the state and behavior of other parts. The interactions between the parts are generally numerous, dense and not necessarily limited in terms of location. These interactions may be formal, informal, virtual or suffused with materiality. Each part reacts according to its own stimuli on local or global emergent phenomena, even in the absence of coordination between the parts. However, the results of these interactions are difficult to foresee, even ...