Organizing simply for complexity: Beyond metaphor towards theory

The science of complexity is founded on the repeated finding that important behaviours of different complex adaptive systems can be described by a sma ll number of principles. In spite of growing interest, applications to huma n social organization have been limited to metaphor and analogy-no theoreti cal principles have been proposed. In this article a general description of the characteristics of emergence and coherence as a wider pattern of organ ization leads to the proposal that six general principles, or necessary con ditions, underlie "adaption" to complex and uncertain environments. It is t hen argued that two key regularities in the development and final shape of human cognition make this deeper understanding of systems directly relevant and applicable to human social organization-as eight principles that enabl e us to organize simply for a complexity. Four of the principles-level-spec ific capability; values; level-specific work processes-are discussed in mor e detail. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.