Complexity and Management
Ralph Stacey

There is at present a great deal of interest in understanding organizations in terms of new theories of complexity, self-organization and emergence. Many of those taking up these theories do so in a way that simply presents existing views in new jargon, another management fad. The reason, this book suggests, is that they understand complexity theories solely within systems thinking.

The authors look carefully at the theoretical foundations of the ways the complexity sciences are being used to understand the sources of stability and change in organizations. As well as offering a thorough critique of the different ways in which complexity thinking is being taken up, this book, the first of a series, lays the ground for a new project. This project, which goes to the roots of Western thought, understands organizations as complex responsive processes of relating. It draws on the complexity sciences as a source domain of analogies, interpreting them through a relationship psychology that draws on the tradition of Hegel, Mead and Elias. The authors show how complexity thinking focuses attention on the emergence of genuine novelty in everyday processes of communicative action.

Timely and controversial, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in strategy, organization and management theory, and organizational change

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Complex Responsive Processes
Ralph Stacey

Over the past decade, practicing managers and organizational theorists have been drawing attention to the centrality of information and knowledge in economic and social processes, the so-called 'knowledge economy'. This is reflected in the popularity in management today of notions of learning, sense-making, knowledge creation, knowledge management and intellectual capital in organizations. More recently, attention has been drawn to emotional intelligence as an important management skill in these processes of learning and knowledge creation.

Complex Responsive Processes in Organizations argues that most of the literature on these matters, and the ways in which most practitioners now talk about them, reflect systems thinking and that its information processing view of knowledge creation is no longer tenable The purpose of this book is to develop a different perspective, that of Complex Responsive Processes of relating, which draws on the complexity sciences as a source domain for analogies with human action. This alternative perspective places self-organizing interaction, with its intrinsic capacity to produce emergent coherence, at the centre of the knowledge creating process in organizations. Learning and knowledge creation are seen as qualitative processes of power relating that are emotional as well as intellectual, creative as well as destructive, enabling as well as constraining.

The result is a radical questioning of the belief that organizational knowledge is essentially codified and centralized. Instead, organizational knowledge is understood to be in the relationships between people in an organization and has to do with the qualities of those relationships.

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Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics (4 Ed)
Ralph Stacey

In the fourth edition of this successful text, Ralph Stacey continues to question the view that organisations operate and succeed in relatively stable environments. He argues that, in order to succeed in uncertainty and continual change, organisations need to create new perspectives and learn from the chaos within which they operate.

This edition continues to focus on this radically different approach to strategic management. The central tenets of the approach have to do with unpredictability and the limitations of control, and therefore it argues against the rational models of planning and control covered in other strategy textbooks. This is done by emphasising the importance of narrative, conversation and learning from one's own experience as the central means by which we can gain understanding and knowledge of strategy in organisations.

The book provides a sharper distinction between systemic and process thinking; with new chapters on the philosophical origins of systems and process thinking, second order and critical system thinking.

It also includes new material on the theory of complex responsive processes, particularly to do with control, leadership and ethics.

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Human Resource Champions
Dave Ulrich

This text shows how effective management of human resources holds the key to any organisation's future success. It is organised by results, such as accomplishing business goals, improving efficiency etc, and examples are included from dozens of companies.

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Learning as a Way of Being
Peter Vaill

In this era of what author Peter Vaill calls "permanent whitewater" in business, managers and leaders are struggling to stay current with new information, skills, and situations. The old classroom-based approaches to learning in this environment no longer work; in fact, the traditional institutional style of teaching and learning actually develops habits of learning that make continuous learning impossible.

Learning must become a day-by-day, conscious habit practised on the job. In this book, Peter Vaill presents a philosophy to guide management learning and development. Vaill explores how learning as a way of being has an impact on current approaches and issues in management - including systems thinking, leadership, culture, and spiritual development. He also outlines learning skills and habits - including "leaderly learning", self-direction, creativity, ownership, and continuous learning - that managers need to develop to succeed in the information era.

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Management as a Performing Art
Peter Vaill

Management as a Performing Art presents a collection of essays on management and leadership that propose radical new ways of thinking about what managers do and what organizations are.

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Spirited Leading and Learning
Peter Vaill

Spirited Leading and Learning offers insight into three critical "process" issues facing the new world of business: developing effective leadership, continuous learning for leaders and their companies, and bringing spirit into work.

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Rewiring the Corporate Brain
Brain Danah Zohar

Zohar claims that organisations have corporate "brains", and that it is only by using the mental, emotional, and spiritual parts of their "brains" that organisations can change efficiently and work well. It aims to provide managers with practical ways of applying this theory.

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