WHAT CRISES COULD TEACH US ABOUT COMPLEXITY AND SYSTEMIC MANAGEMENT -THE CASE OF THE NESTUCCA OIL-SPILL

In this article we attempt to uncover some systemic management princip les for the better management of complex issues. Taking a pragmatic ap proach we have expanded the case methodology proposed by John Dewey to the case study of a major crisis. By proposing that crises allow for a better apprenension of complexity, we study the changes which were c arried out or not, to this day, after the 1988 Nestucca oil spill that occurred in Canada only three months prior to the Exxon-Valdez disast er. After conducting a linear and systemic analysis of the crisis, we propose that the changes institutionalized thus far spring mostly from what we call ''behavioral'' and ''paradigmatic'' learning which are w eak for addressing complex issues. Proposing that 15% of the people we have interviewed where able to derive a ''systemic learning'' from th is crisis, we suggest several unlocking strategies that allow these sy stemic lessons to be institutionalized. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.