Complexity as the Experience of Organizing – serie

The perspective of complex responsive processes draws on analogies from the complexity sciences, bringing in the essential characteristics of human agents, understood to emerge in social processes of communicative interaction and power relating. The result is a way of thinking about life in organizations that focuses attention on how organizational members cope with the unknown as they perpetually create organizational futures together.This book introduces and explores the possible meanings of the idea of ‘working live’. It makes sense of the sense-making experience itself, drawing attention to the way ideas and concepts emerge ‘live’ in all conversations in organizations. An appreciation of the open-ended, improvisational nature of ongoing human communication becomes key to such an understanding. This book will be of great value to readers looking for reflective accounts of real life experiences in organizations, rather than further prescriptions of what life in organizations ought to be.

The perspective of complex responsive processes draws on analogies from the complexity sciences, bringing in the essential characteristics of human agents, understood to emerge in social processes of communicative interaction and power relating. The result is a way of thinking about life in organizations that focuses attention on how organizational members cope with the unknown as they perpetually create organizational futures together.This book introduces and explores the possible meanings of the idea of ‘working live’. It makes sense of the sense-making experience itself, drawing attention to the way ideas and concepts emerge ‘live’ in all conversations in organizations. An appreciation of the open-ended, improvisational nature of ongoing human communication becomes key to such an understanding. This book will be of great value to readers looking for reflective accounts of real life experiences in organizations, rather than further prescriptions of what life in organizations ought to be.

Part of the Complexity as the Experience of Organizing series, this book applies complex responsiveness theory to real-life leadership experiences. It features contributions from and details the experience of organizational practitioners, leaders, consultants and managers from various organizations through narrative accounts. It addresses questions such as:How do widespread or global patterns emerge and evolve in the local interactions between people?What actually happens in global change programmes?What does this imply about the relationship between the local and the global?Exploring the perspective of complex responsive processes, the book’s contributors examine how this assists them in making sense of their experience, and how this awareness then leads to their development.This book is a valuable study for academics, business school students and practitioners, as rather than offering mere descriptions of organizational life, it provides reflective accounts of real-life experiences of researching in organizations.

Examining the experiences of organizational practitioners, this informative book features contributions from experienced leaders, consultants and managers in various organizations, and narrative accounts of the contributors work address key topical questions. Rather than offering descriptions of organizational life, this book provides reflective accounts of real life experiences of researching in organizations, and will be a valuable insight for academics and business school students and practitioners. In considering several key questions in terms of daily experience, the contributors explore the perspective of complex responsive processes, investigate how this assists them to make sense of their experience and analyze how it leads to their development.

The contributors to this book are leaders, consultants or managers in organizations who provide narrative accounts of their actual work and daily experience. They explore how the perspective of complex responsive processes assists them to make sense of their experience and so to develop their practice. Offering a different method of making sense of an individual’s experience in a rapidly changing world, this book uses reflective accounts of ordinary everyday life in organizations rather than idealized accounts. The editors’ commentary introduces and contextualizes these experiences as well as drawing out key themes for further research.

The contributors to this book are leaders, consultants or managers in organizations who provide narrative accounts of their actual work and daily experience. They explore how the perspective of complex responsive processes assists them to make sense of their experience and so to develop their practice. Offering a different method of making sense of an individual’s experience in a rapidly changing world, this book uses reflective accounts of ordinary everyday life in organizations rather than idealized accounts. The editors’ commentary introduces and contextualizes these experiences as well as drawing out key themes for further research.

A fundamental problem of public sector governance relates to the very way of thinking it reflects; where organization is thought of as a ‘thing’, a system designed to deliver what its designers choose. This volume questions that way of thinking and takes a perspective in which organizations are complex responsive processes of relating between people. Bringing together the work of participants on the Doctor of Management program at Hertfordshire University, this book focuses on the move to marketization and managerialism, paying particular attention to human relationships and group dynamics. The contributors provide narrative accounts of their work addressing questions of management, pressures, accountability, responsiveness and traditional systems perspectives. In considering such questions in terms of their daily experience, they explore how the perspective of complex responsive processes assists them in making sense of experience and developing practice. Including an editors’ commentary which introduces and contextualizes these experiences as well as drawing out key themes for further research, this book will be of value to academics, students and practitioners looking for reflective accounts of real life experiences rather than further prescriptions of what organizational life ought to be.

A fundamental problem of public sector governance relates to the very way of thinking it reflects; where organization is thought of as a ‘thing’, a system designed to deliver what its designers choose. This volume questions that way of thinking and takes a perspective in which organizations are complex responsive processes of relating between people. Bringing together the work of participants on the Doctor of Management program at Hertfordshire University, this book focuses on the move to marketization and managerialism, paying particular attention to human relationships and group dynamics. The contributors provide narrative accounts of their work addressing questions of management, pressures, accountability, responsiveness and traditional systems perspectives. In considering such questions in terms of their daily experience, they explore how the perspective of complex responsive processes assists them in making sense of experience and developing practice. Including an editors’ commentary which introduces and contextualizes these experiences as well as drawing out key themes for further research, this book will be of value to academics, students and practitioners looking for reflective accounts of real life experiences rather than further prescriptions of what organizational life ought to be.

Part of the Complexity as the Experience of Organizing series, this book applies complex responsiveness theory to real-life leadership experiences. It features contributions from and details the experience of organizational practitioners, leaders, consultants and managers from various organizations through narrative accounts. It addresses questions such as:How do widespread or global patterns emerge and evolve in the local interactions between people?What actually happens in global change programmes?What does this imply about the relationship between the local and the global?Exploring the perspective of complex responsive processes, the book’s contributors examine how this assists them in making sense of their experience, and how this awareness then leads to their development.This book is a valuable study for academics, business school students and practitioners, as rather than offering mere descriptions of organizational life, it provides reflective accounts of real-life experiences of researching in organizations.