Managing Emergent Phenomena : Nonlinear Dynamics in Work Organizations

by Guastello, Stephen J.

• ISBN13: 9780585390598
• ISBN10: 0585390592
• Copyright: 2002-01-12
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Summary

This book about chaos theory or complexity theory is the study of events that change over time and space. This book will present a viable theory of organizations that integrates nonlinear dynamic system principles. It will be of interest to management/P>

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Scenes From the Nonlinear House of Panic	p. 1
The Rise and Fall of Bureaucracy	p. 1
Enter the House of Panic	p. 3
Principles of Nonlinear Dynamics, Chaos, and Complexity	p. 7
Preview of Coming Attractions	p. 12
Nonlinear Dynamical Systems Theory	p. 15
Attractors and Stability	p. 16
Instabilities and Bifurcation	p. 21
Chaos and Chaotic Attractors	p. 27
Fractals	p. 32
Self-organization and Coupled Dynamics	p. 38
Catastrophe Theory	p. 46
Structural Equations	p. 55
Data Requirements	p. 56
Probability Density, Location, and Scale	p. 57
Structure of Behavioral Measurements	p. 60
Power Polynomial Regression Method	p. 61
Exponential Series with Nonlinear Regression	p. 63
Catastrophe PDFs with Nonlinear Regression	p. 66
Systems with More Than One Order Parameter	p. 69
The Role of Embedding Dimension and Attractor Reconstruction	p. 70
Summary	p. 73
Organizational Change and Development	p. 75
Organizational Structure, Climate, and Culture	p. 76
The Dynamics of Organizational Change	p. 81
Consciousness in Organizations	p. 102
Summary	p. 112
Nonlinear Motivation Theory	p. 114
Some Basic Concepts	p. 115
Butterfly Catastrophe Model of Motivation	p. 118
Game Theory	p. 122
Utility of Selection to the Employer	p. 130
Turnover Among Air Force Recruits	p. 132
Motivational Flow	p. 148
Summary	p. 152
Dynamical Theory of Creativity	p. 154
Creativity Basics	p. 155
Chaotic Flows and Individual Creativity	p. 165
Group Problem-solving Dynamics	p. 180
Summary	p. 188
Social Networks	p. 191
The Nature of Social Networks	p. 192
Nonlinear Dynamics for Networks	p. 194
Organizational Networks	p. 198
Summary	p. 207
Work Group Coordination	p. 209
The Social Process	p. 210
Game Theory and Implicit Learning	p. 212
Intersection	p. 213
Nonlinear Dynamics and Coordination	p. 216
Origins of Coordination Experiment	p. 219
Verbalization and Replacement of Personnel	p. 222
Social Institutions and Virtual Communities	p. 225
Summary	p. 226
The Emergence of Leadership	p. 228
Conventional Theories of Leadership	p. 230
Dynamics of Leadership Emergence	p. 239
Summary	p. 250
Work Flows in Hierarchies	p. 252
Conventional Approach to Hierarchies	p. 253
Nonlinear Dynamics, Productivity, and Hierarchies	p. 258
Chaos Exercise Experiments	p. 260
Summary	p. 273
Nonlinear Economics	p. 274
Classical Concepts	p. 275
Rationality in the Stock Exchange	p. 279
Unemployment and Inflation	p. 283
Information Economics	p. 288
Potential Collapse of Oceanic Fish Harvests	p. 292
Summary	p. 296
Dynamical Systems	p. 298
Predictions of the Future	p. 299
Psychology of Prediction	p. 307
Control of Chaos	p. 308
Control of Catastrophic Processes	p. 315
Cognitive Strategies for Complexity	p. 318
Dynamics of Emergency Management	p. 320
Summary	p. 324
Epilogue: Whatever Happened to Everything?	p. 327
The Utility	p. 327
The Phenomena	p. 328
The Dynamics	p. 334
Data Analysis with Structural Equations	p. 339
The Island Commission Game	p. 347
References	p. 353
Author Index	p. 377
Subject Index	p. 387
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