Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics: The Challenge of Complexity

In the fourth edition of this successful text, Ralph Stacey continues to question the view that organisations operate and succeed in relatively stable environments. He argues that in order to succeed in uncertainty and continual change, organisations need to create new perspectives and learn from the chaos within which they operate.

This edition continues to focus on this radically different approach to strategic management. The central tenets of this approach have to do with unpredictability and the limitations of control, and therefore it argues against the rational models of planning and control covered in other strategy textbooks. This is done by emphasising the importance of narrative, conversation and learning from one's own experience as the central means by which we can gain understanding and knowledge of strategy in organisations.

Ralph Stacey is Professor of Management at the Business School, University of Hertfordshire. He is the Director of the Complexity and Management Centre at the University of Hertfordshire and author of a number of books and papers on complexity and organisations: The Chaos Frontier (1991); Managing the Unknowable (1992); Complexity and Creativity in Organizations (1996); Complexity and Management: fad or radical challenge to systems thinking? (with Griffin & Shaw, 2000); Complex Responsive Processes in Organizations: learning and knowledge creation (2001): He consults to management groups in organisations and is also a member of the Institute of Group Analysis.