Title: Developing managerial understanding of self-organisation

Authors: Saadia Mahmud

Addresses: School of Management, University of South Australia, City West Campus, Elton Mayo Building, North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia 5000, Australia

Abstract: The self-organisation process in a complex adaptive system (CAS) in the social world exhibits many different characteristics as opposed to the natural world or mechanical simulation. Our understanding is limited in the area of complexity science|s application to the social world. Based on research in three Australian SMEs, the author proposes to develop managerial understanding of self-organisation by classifying self-organisation in complex adaptive systems on the basis of agent behaviour and internal dynamics. The proposed classification distinguishes between self-organisation evident in the natural world and mechanical simulation from that evident in the social world.

Keywords: complex adaptive systems; CAS; self-organisation; managerial understanding; social world; natural world; mechanical simulation; Australia; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; system classification; agent behaviour; internal dynamics; complexity; leadership; management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCLM.2011.040731

International Journal of Complexity in Leadership and Management, 2011 Vol.1 No.2, pp.105 - 115

Published online: 22 Oct 2014 *

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