Comparing Theory and Practice: An Application of Complexity Theory to General Ridgway's Success in Korea

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eldridge D. Browne
Keyword(s):  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Theory And Practice

scholarly journals Developing public service knowledge and learning about complex systems: using a community of practice to integrate theory and practice

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Philip Haynes ◽  
Mary Darking ◽  
Julia Stroud
Keyword(s):  
Complex Systems ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Shared Values ◽  
Virtual Learning Environment ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Management Interventions

A Community of Practice Knowledge Exchange (CPKE) comprising of practitioners and academics with an interest in complexity theory was formed. The central activity of the CPKE was an agreement that each would develop a case study that integrated complexity theory and challenges in practice. In the first phase, members agreed definitions of core concepts and used them to describe the systems they were working in.  Frequent contact was via a virtual learning environment.  This activity was supplemented with face-to-face contact, in the form of half-day workshops. After several months, the CPKE agreed two core pieces of reading to provide a theoretical basis. These were popular because of their applied focus. The CPKE evolved to a second phase.  Diverse case studies of practice-based challenges were used to share experiences of complex systems. A key event was the presentation of case studies as complex systems using a shared conceptual language generated by earlier learning. In the final phase, the CPKE considered interventions into the case studies and created and applied a management toolkit to develop approaches to possible management interventions. Through the development of the toolkit, the CPKE became interested in the role of values in a complexity-based practice and how coherent and shared values could aid more informed interventions. The use of complexity theory changed the ontology of management practice by facilitating an understanding and acceptance of uncertainty and that optimal approaches often required a relational and cooperative approach built on shared values, rather than an instrumental and singular management orthodoxy.

scholarly journals Organisational culture: A contemporary management perspective

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Weeks
Keyword(s):  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Organisational Culture ◽  
Transformation Process ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Important Conclusion ◽  
Culture Transformation ◽  
Management Perspective ◽  
Contemporary Management ◽  
Executives And Managers

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the concept "organisational culture from a traditional and a more contemporary management perspective. Problem investigated: The concept organizational culture has assumed a very prominent place within the management literature and has been analysed from diverse multidisciplinary perspectives. Central to the importance attributed to the concept is the fact that it acts as a perceptual and behavioural determinant, which implies that it will have a significant impact on all human related institutional activities and thus the interest in the concept and its management. Researchers and management practitioners have come to assume that while the concept is difficult to manage in practice, it is possible to determine the prevailing culture of an institution, identify what is termed to be a desired culture for an institution and then analyse the cultural gap that exists. Based on the analysis conducted, it is further frequently assumed that the transition from the prevailing to a desired culture can be managed. A more contemporary management perspective, based on complexity theory, would appear to challenge the assumption of being able to actively manage the organisation's culture transformation process to ensure that a desired culture is manifest within the institution. The traditional and more contemporary approaches for dealing with the concept "organisational culture" are the focus of discussion and analysis in this paper. Methodology: A multidisciplinary literature review and analysis is undertaken to gain an insight of traditional and contemporary management theory and practice, as it relates to the concept "organisational culture" and its management. Findings: An important conclusion drawn from the study is that traditional paradigms of organisational culture management, that evolved within a more mechanistic manufacturing economy, is no longer effective for dealing with the unpredictable and disruptive changes of a highly complex, competitive and turbulent global services economy. It is suggested that a more contemporary complexity theory approach in dealing with the concept may in fact be more appropriate. Value of the research: Increasingly executives and managers are confronted with the complex realities associated with managing a modern day enterprise in a very turbulent and emerging global services economy. The concept organisational culture, as a perceptual and behavioural determinant, will have a multifaceted influence in the management of the enterprise and the insights derived from this research study could assist executives and managers in dealing with organisational culture as an emergent property, as opposed to a purposefully managed entity. Conclusion: A primary conclusion drawn from the study is that within a contemporary management setting the notion of organisational culture as an emergent, as opposed to actively managed, concept would appear to be more realistic. This would imply that executives and managers at best can attempt to influence its emergence and consequently its impact as a perceptual and behavioural determinant.

scholarly journals Bringing life to leadership: The emergence of principal leadership practice for educational success in low socio-economic schools

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Angela Blanche Anna-Lise Millar
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Principal Leadership ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Educational Achievement ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Educational Success ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Tight Coupling ◽  
Leadership Practice

<p>The persistent educational achievement gap and historically haphazard nature of progress for students in impoverished contexts in New Zealand primary schools is a deep-seated problem needing urgent attention. This multifaceted and interconnected problem has no distinct origin and no clear solution and is continuing to harm individual and collective futures. This thesis explores principal leadership practice and how it intersects with the low socio-economic context, to improve outcomes for vulnerable students.  Using a case study approach, two principals and their schools are holistically described using a theoretical framework grounded in complexity theory. Both the approach and theory uniquely explores principal practice as an individual and collective phenomenon, as a living, evolving network of self-organisation where both parts and wholes are significant, and as practice grounded in context.  The theory also offers a unique way to arrange and interpret findings. The study findings identified local notions of educational success as a way of understanding the trajectory of the ecosystem whole. The broad principal leadership patterns of practice included: building the network; integrating multiple perspectives; facilitating cohesion; and confronting and addressing injustices. These patterns evidenced a tight coupling between theory and practice. In the spirit of complexity theory, principal leadership practice is additionally explained as a sum greater than its parts. The capability of the network is described through concepts of stability and flow and shows, that no matter how competent the principal leader and their network, the contribution to education reform grapples to be transformational.  Recommendations are made for principal leaders, professional development providers, as well as the Ministry of Education and policymakers that offer hope and contribute to disrupting the current trajectory, so transformational change is more likely. Areas of instability and important leverage points, include professional learning and development, community-school connections and resourcing.</p>

scholarly journals Smart City Planning

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrik Ekman
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Smart City ◽  
City Planning ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Urban System ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
The Face ◽  
The City

This article reflects on the challenges for urban planning posed by the emergence of smart cities in network societies. In particular, it reflects on reductionist tendencies in existing smart city planning. Here the concern is with the implications of prior reductions of complexity which have been undertaken by placing primacy in planning on information technology, economical profit, and top-down political government. Rather than pointing urban planning towards a different ordering of these reductions, this article argues in favor of approaches to smart city planning via complexity theory. Specifically, this article argues in favor of approaching smart city plans holistically as topologies of organized complexity. Here, smart city planning is seen as a theory and practice engaging with a complex adaptive urban system which continuously operates on its potential. The actualizations in the face of contingency of such potential are what might have the city evolve over time, its organization, its wholeness, and its continued existence being at stake from moment to moment.

Complexity explained: The dialectical position between theory and practice. Theoretical group analytic concepts and clinical examples

2021 ◽  
pp. 053331642097991
Author(s):  
Maria Papanastassiou
Keyword(s):  
Small Group ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Group Analysis ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Clinical Material ◽  
Analytic Group ◽  
Hegelian Dialectic ◽  
Trainee Group ◽  
Dialectical Relationship ◽  
The Individual

I present below an attempt to understand complexity theory and the dialectical relationship between theory and group analytic practice. These are often concepts difficult to make sense of as they are rarely illuminated with clinical material for the reader or the trainee group analyst to comprehend. After the introduction of the Kantian and Hegelian dialectic and its use to understand group analytic concepts, I move on to the complexity theory and attempt to illustrate its significance with a clinical example from a small group analytic group. Cavafis’s celebrated poem ‘Ithaka’, is used as a metaphor for the utmost importance of the splendid interpersonal and transpersonal journey in group analysis with all its challenges and gains that this brings to the individual and to the group as a whole as the emphasis is on the process (journey) rather the destination (Ithaka).

scholarly journals Governing projects under complexity: theory and practice in project management

2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 1285-1290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyrone S. Pitsis ◽  
Shankar Sankaran ◽  
Siegfried Gudergan ◽  
Stewart R. Clegg
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Theory And Practice

scholarly journals Bringing life to leadership: The emergence of principal leadership practice for educational success in low socio-economic schools

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Angela Blanche Anna-Lise Millar
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Principal Leadership ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Educational Achievement ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Educational Success ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Tight Coupling ◽  
Leadership Practice

<p>The persistent educational achievement gap and historically haphazard nature of progress for students in impoverished contexts in New Zealand primary schools is a deep-seated problem needing urgent attention. This multifaceted and interconnected problem has no distinct origin and no clear solution and is continuing to harm individual and collective futures. This thesis explores principal leadership practice and how it intersects with the low socio-economic context, to improve outcomes for vulnerable students.  Using a case study approach, two principals and their schools are holistically described using a theoretical framework grounded in complexity theory. Both the approach and theory uniquely explores principal practice as an individual and collective phenomenon, as a living, evolving network of self-organisation where both parts and wholes are significant, and as practice grounded in context.  The theory also offers a unique way to arrange and interpret findings. The study findings identified local notions of educational success as a way of understanding the trajectory of the ecosystem whole. The broad principal leadership patterns of practice included: building the network; integrating multiple perspectives; facilitating cohesion; and confronting and addressing injustices. These patterns evidenced a tight coupling between theory and practice. In the spirit of complexity theory, principal leadership practice is additionally explained as a sum greater than its parts. The capability of the network is described through concepts of stability and flow and shows, that no matter how competent the principal leader and their network, the contribution to education reform grapples to be transformational.  Recommendations are made for principal leaders, professional development providers, as well as the Ministry of Education and policymakers that offer hope and contribute to disrupting the current trajectory, so transformational change is more likely. Areas of instability and important leverage points, include professional learning and development, community-school connections and resourcing.</p>

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