Complexity and Creativity in Organizations [Hardcover]

Ralph D. Stacey (strategic management, U. of Hertfordshire, England, and management consultant) has contributed for years to our knowledge related to organizations and management. His previous publications primarily served to
illuminate the relevance of applying strategic approaches and complexity theory to organization and management in a rapidly growing environment (see for example, Stacey, 1991, 1992, 1993).
His latest installment, Complexity and Creativity in Organizations, represents a significant step forward in his thinking by reviving systems theory and integrating insights from a variety of disciplines to create, he proposes, an original perspective. More precisely, Stacey combines his acquired acumen from the fields of chaos and complexity, organizational behavior, biology, and psychoanalysis to demonstrate how complexity concepts may be used to create a framework for understanding organizational processes and learning.
During the course of his presentation, Stacey reviews current knowledge in the nature of human networks and complexity theory. He explores the place of complexity in individuals, groups and organizations. He also discusses the implications of applying the complexity paradigm for management research and practice.
Complexity and Creativity in Organizations is aimed at "consultants, and managers, those concerned with life in organizations, to new efforts being undertaken to understand life in nature." It is organized into ten chapters divided into four parts: Part I: The Complex Nature of Human Networks, attempts to demonstrate "that human systems are indeed the kind of system that the science of complexity deals with."
Part II: The Science of Complexity, reviews literature on "the dynamics of deterministic feedback networks," and explores how some "scientists have come to understand adaptive feedback networks."
Part III: Mapping the Science of Complexity onto Organizations, "seeks to locate the space for novelty in human systems and explore the process of evolution in that space."
Part IV: Implications of Complexity Theory for Organizations, attempts to illustrate that by adopting the complexity perspective, our understanding of organizational life is "completely different from today's dominant frame of reference."
It includes a brief glossary; some expected references; and an index appropriate to the depth of this work.
This book is well intended, but falls short of stated goals and purpose. This reviewer was unable to discover sufficient value in Stacey's recent contribution to merit its recommendation. A genuine disappointment considering his earlier, value-adding writings.
Stacey's Complexity and Creativity in Organizations fails in areas ranging from the timeliness of his information--it is out dated; to lack of contribution--it's an unfortunate attempt to repackage existing knowledge; to coverage and depth of his subject; to the tone and presentation of the work.
His writing style and tone are that of lecturer dealing with elementary school students as he avidly invokes the royal "we" to connect with his readers. He offers paragraphs of immoderate length, some consisting of one sentence. (This reviewer became discouraged trying to decipher some sentences ranging from seventy to ninety-five words. She had to edit them into four or five sentences so she could follow his points. Points which, when understood, were not worth the editorial effort.)
As a combined example of "we"-ness in a two sentence paragraph beginning with a ninety-five word sentence advancing too many concepts at once, "let us" consider the following.
We have now mapped the novelty onto organizations, and we have found . . . nonlinear feedback system: . . . phase transition . . . stable and unstable zones . . . control parameters . . . at a critical point . . . the edge of system disintegration in which paradox is sustained . . . archetypical behaviors are actualized . . . creative destruction.
This is followed by a 33 word sentence which includes two "we"s and the phrases "peculiarity of human dynamics of anxiety-inspiration," "individuation-conformity," "leadership-followership," and "participation-observation render mapping invalid (page 183)."
This reviewer places part of the blame for Stacey's presentation on the publisher who seems to have been remiss in the discharging of editorial responsibilities.
Stacey may also confuse some by not offering comparable terms from different fields. Those less inter-disciplinarily trained may not recognize, for example, that the term "Shadow system" (to which he has apparently developed a fondness owing to its usage every few pages), is not discernibly different from the concept of "Informal organization" which he does not mention, but is often speaking about.
While his book is presented as inter-disciplinary in nature, me thinks and "feels" that Stacey's study of psychology and psychoanalysis have overly influenced his writing. He frequently discusses "how we feel" or "feelings" in relationship to how consultants might analyze a complex organizational situation.
His current writing is rich in banality and incomparable comparisons. My personal favorite is when he compares schools of psychology. In one paragraph, he discusses with equal fervor the work of Berne, Freud and Jung. Specifically, he discusses Transactional Analysis (TA) brought to you by Berne in Games People Play. TA was never much more than a popular 1960s parlor game. And Games People Play primarily served as the textual reference to inform the Friday night pop-psychological critiques bandied about by those who had one too many beers. Stacey then proceeds to Freud as relates to anal retentive, anal explusive and orally fixated scripts; and to Jung as it relates to personal archetypes and personal behaviors activated by specific experiences.
There are many other problems with this book which "we" do not have the space to discuss. Those deeply interested in chaos and complexity theories as applied to management and organizations are better served by examining earlier, and in my opinion, more informed writing on these topics. See, for example, works by Gleick, 1988; Waldrop, 1992; and Wheatley, 1992. Moreover, a search on the internet concerning chaos and complexity will yield much information on current states of theories, research and practice, as well as discussion groups and detailed bibliographies.
Bottom line, this reviewer gained little from this book, but did have a few chuckles. Read Complexity and Creativity in Organizations at your own risk.
REFERENCES:
Berne, E. (1964). Games people play. New York: Grove Press.
Gleick, J. (1988). Chaos: The making of a new science. London: Heinemann.
Stacey, RD. (1991). The chaos frontier: Creative strategic control for business. Oxford, England: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Stacey, RD. (1992). Managing the unknowable: Strategic boundaries between order and chaos in organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Stacey, RD. (1993). Strategic management and organizational dynamics. London: Pitman.
Waldrop, MM. (1992). Complexity: The emerging science at the edge of chaos. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Wheatley, MJ. (1992). Leadership and the New Science: Learning about organization from an orderly universe. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.

[Note: the above was excerpted from review by Susan Phelps that appears in "Personnel Psychology

While the content should have some value, the cost to the reader to extract the information is so high that the author should pay the reader to read his book. In the first 25 pages of "At Home in the Universe", Stuart Kauffman sucessfully introduces more than Stacey stumbled over in 282 pages. If it's an organizational perspective you want, buy Margaret Wheatley's stuff.