Complex Social Systems:

Rising Complexity in Business Environments

an exploratory discussion

“Complexity is messy and takes time to understand.”

-Deborah Campbell

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IntroductionGenesis: •Trying to model increased business environmental complexity•Saw need to identify universal environmental factors

Method:•Brainstorming, hypothesis formation, literature review

homogeneous output heterogeneous output

c c

scale scale

Complexity in Social Systems:•The number of incorrect possible choices for every correct choice

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Historical Perspectives

Is there a progression toward complexity in Management theory?

1910s: Frederick Taylor’s Scientific Management: determination of uniform methods in manufacturing (“the one best way”). Standardized tools and practices.

1930s: The Human Relations School: continued to control workers closely, but introduced a ‘bottom-up’ perspective.

1950s: The Carnegie School: introduced social psychology and an individual level of analysis to the workplace.

1970s: Institutionalism: social behavior, culture, ideals, world views and symbols are key inputs into organizational dynamics.

1960s: The Contingency School: a shift of attention from structure to process and contextual variables (the “fit” between structure and environment). Increased uncertainty requires loosened control, participation, communication.

1990s: Business Process Re-engineering: wholesale movement to restructure from hierarchical to distributed structures.

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Measuring Complexity

• General Measures– Software analysis tools

– Matrix typology, graph theoretic

• Case-Specific Measures– Dynamic density for air traffic control

– Hewlett-Packard conceptual model and simulation

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Environmental Factors that Drive Increased Complexity in Business Organizations

1. Globalization

• The increased mobility of goods, services, labor, technology and capital throughout the world (Government of Canada)

2. Increased Use of Technology

• Technology permeates all aspects of a business

• Particular emphasis on communication channels

Environmental Factors: Globalization

• Opens up many new choices and possibilities

• Number of wrong choices increases

• Number of interdependencies increases – Supply chains

– Marketing agreements

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“People working on complex, non-routine, 'unanalyzable' problems prefer and benefit from

working face to face…”

Key Question: Does rise of technical work make the workplace more complicated? If so, does technology contribute to less hierarchical organizations? Survey says…

Environmental Factors: Technology

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•Rise in technical work and horizontal organizational structure of technical workers increases collaboration and non-hierarchical communication.

- Powell (1990), Barley (1994)

•Evidence that today’s organizations are

less hierarchical (more networked)…

•17 papers from 1967 to 1995

Environmental Factors: Technology

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Complex Social Systems: Rising Complexity in Business Environments

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