SPEAKING OF COMPLEXITY IN MANAGEMENT THEORY AND PRACTICE

This paper describes a complexity perspective on organizational life b y drawing on three distinctive sources. First, we describe the way dif ferent natural scientists talk of their work in simulating complex dyn amical systems. Second, we listen to the contribution of social scient ists in describing the dynamics of human interaction and third, we des cribe group analytic practice as it illuminates the emotional, preling uistic processes at work in the group matrix. We argue that together t hese insights allow us to speak of the nature of self-organization in human systems in a way that emphasizes intersubjectivity, emergence an d de-centred agency in contrast to the dominant voice in much manageme nt thinking which emphasizes objectivity control and individual agency . We then relate how the complexity perspective we describe informs ou r approach to organizational consulting in which we participate in net works of self-organizing everyday conversation whereby the patterned s tructure of organizational activity is paradoxically both sustained an d changed.