INTERVENING IN THE SHADOW SYSTEMS OF ORGANIZATIONS - CONSULTING FROM A COMPLEXITY PERSPECTIVE

Suggests that consultants have tended to understand organizational sys tems in terms of organic metaphors of equilibrium adaptations between system and environment. Examines the implications of ideas from the st udy of complex adaptive systems that suggest that living systems co-ev olve to far-from-equilibrium conditions, ''at the edge of chaos''. Tak es this perspective for understanding the interactions occurring simul taneously in an organization's designed or formal network of relations hips, and in its self-organizing or shadow networks. Provides illustra tions from the author's consulting practice to suggest how such a pers pective may inform OD intervention in organizational culture change.