The Science of Complexity: An Alternative Perspective for Strategic Change Processes

Ralph Stacey

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The two perspectives of strategy process most firmly established in the literature—strategic choice and ecology—assume the same about system dynamics: negative feedback processes driving successful systems (individual organizations or populations of organizations) toward predictable equilibrium states of adaptation to the environment. This paper proposes a third perspective, that of complex adaptive systems. The framework is provided by the modern science of complexity: the study of nonlinear and network feedback systems, incorporating theories of chaos, artificial life, self-organization and emergent order. Here system dynamics are characterized by positive and negative feedback as systems coevolve far from equilibrium, in a self-organizing manner, toward unpredictable long-term outcomes
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)477-495
JournalStrategic Management Journal
Volume16
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 1995

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