Harnessing Complexity: Organizational Implications of a Scientific Frontier - Hardcover

Axelrod, Robert; Cohen, Michael D

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684867176 ISBN 13: 9780684867175

Publisher: Free Press, 2000

Synopsis

Recent advances in the study of complexity have given scientists profound new insights into how natural innovation occurs and how its power can be exploited. Now two pioneers in the field, Robert Axelrod and Michael D. Cohen, provide leaders in business and government with a guide to complexity that will help them make effective decisions in a world of rapid change. Building on evolutionary biology, computer science, and social design, Axelrod and Cohen have constructed a unique framework for improving the way people work together. Their approach to management is based on the concept of the Complex Adaptive System, which can describe everything from rain forests to the human gene pool, and from automated software agents to multinational companies. The authors' framework reveals three qualities that all kinds of managers must cultivate in their organization: Variation What is the best way to manage the development of software? Should the problem be broken up into small pieces for programmers working independently, thus enhancing variation, or should there be a centralized hierarchy of programmers ruled by a chain of command? The authors show how the decentralized creation of variation combined with the centralized maintenance of standards was the key to the success of the Linux "open source software" project, which brought together thousands of volunteers in cyberspace to produce an operating system that can outperform Microsoft's. Interaction Why did northern Italy prosper while southern Italy remained poor? Recognizing the internal interactions of a Complex Adaptive System -- be it a national region, a company, or a nonprofit group -- reveals vital networks of trust. Axelrod and Cohen explain that in successful adaptive systems, rich networks of horizontal linkages foster cooperation and provide an advantage over other less cooperatively networked groups. In the case of Italy, voluntary associations created networks of trust in the Middle Ages that became northern Italy's critical advantage over the south. Selection Is a Pulitzer Prize better than a National Book Award? How can foundations and corporations design competitions that have a positive effect on the evolution of excellence? The authors' framework makes clear that the worst selection processes are mired in orthodox standards that have not adapted to a new environment. The best selection processes, on the other hand, are created and run by leaders who understand how the standards they use can transform their organization and its environment. This simple, paradigm-shifting analysis of how people work together will transform the way we think about getting things done in a group. Harnessing Complexity is the essential guide to creating wealth, power, and knowledge in the 21st

About this title

About the Author

Robert Axelrod is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. The author of The Evolution of Cooperation. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

From the Inside Flap

Advance praise for Harnessing Complexity:

Harnessing Complexity distills the managerial essence of current research in complexity. Any manager confronted with disruptive change will find that Axelrod and Cohen have made a very valuable contribution to the emerging theory of competition and competitive advantage.

--C. K. Prahalad, University of Michigan, coauthor of Competing for the Future

A brilliant exposition that demystifies both the theory and use of complex adaptive systems.

--John Seely Brown, Chief Scientist, Xerox Corporation, and Director, Palo Alto Research Center

Insightful and refreshingly honest, Axelrod and Cohen have created a major contribution to complexity literature.

--Ellen H. Goldberg, President, Santa Fe Institute

There has always been a fairly wide gap between theoretical work on complex adaptive systems and its application to real world problems confronting business and public policy. Harnessing Complexity builds a highly practical bridge between these worlds, drawing on the deep insights of two thinkers who were there at the beginning of the complexity revolution.

--Francis Fukuyama, author of The Great Disruption and The End of History

You can't control complex systems, but you can influence them. Harnessing Complexity shows how. It is the first book to show how to make complexity work for you.

--Hal Varian, Dean School of Information & Management Systems, University of California, Berkeley, and coauthor of Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy

Very very impressive! Enables readers to sense the power of the concepts. Useful for people who want an introduction to complex adaptive systems and how Axelrod and Cohen's framework might be applied.

--Dr. Bruce Abell, a managing director of the Santa Fe Center for Emergent Strategies

Reviews

In a world where companies are forced to adapt to an ever more quickly changing marketplace, where people from diverse backgrounds must work together in order to solve problems rapidly and the future is hard to predict, wouldn't it be wonderful if all this complexity could work to your advantage? Axelrod (The Evolution of the Corporation) and Cohen (a consultant to the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center), both professors at the University of Michigan, aim to draw on the principles of evolutionary biology, computer science and social design to explain the functioning of "complex adaptive systems" (specifically businesses), and how to improve them. They explore such abstract issues as whether to encourage variation in a rapidly changing situation (whether it refers to a diversity of products or problem-solving approaches, variety is defined as "the raw material for adaptation"); the impact of manipulating interactions (with respect to time as well as both physical and conceptual space) in an organization; and how to select and support the most viable individuals, teams, systems or business strategies that emerge. Although their schematic approach and well-drawn anecdotal examples yield pragmatic insights, Axelrod and Cohen rely on somewhat idiosyncratic terminology to make their key points: "Agents of a variety of types use their strategies in patterned interaction, with each other and with artifacts" (authors' emphasis). While most managers are aware of complexity theory and are eager to learn how to adapt it to their organizations, some may be put off by the convoluted language used here. Agent, Raphael Sagalyn. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Management theorists are increasingly turning to complexity science in their search for answers to questions about organizational behavior. Axelrod and Cohen are professors of public policy. Their perspective on complexity is on building effective teams from complex groups of individuals. Axelrod is the author of the groundbreaking The Evolution of Cooperation (1984) and its follow-up, The Complexity of Cooperation (1997). Cohen has served on the external faculty at the Santa Fe Institute, a leading research facility in the field of complexity. Drawing on their research done for a report on national information policy by the Highlands Forum under the aegis of the Department of Defense, the authors offer numerous business, political, and cultural applications for their model of complex adaptive systems. Clarifying the differences between complexity and chaos theories, they trace the principles of complex adaptive systems to evolutionary biology, computer science, and social design; and they outline three key processes of such systems: variation, interaction, and selection. David Rouse
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0684867176
• ISBN 13: 9780684867175
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208