Inquiries, Indices and Incommensurabilities, Washington DC, USA

Inquiries, Indices and Incommensurabilities: Managing Emergence, Complexity and Organization

To What Degree Can Complexity and/or Emergence be Effectively Managed? Using Which Indices or Indexicals? Using which Inquiries? Is Traditional Command and Control Management Incommensurable with Complexity and Emergence? If So, What Managerial Skills are Sensitive to Complexity and Emergence?

The Institute for the Study of Coherence and Emergence
Washington Evolutionary Systems Society
Cranfield University 's Complex Systems Management Centre
Research Program in Social and Organizational Learning at The George Washington University

Incommensurable, incomparable - the relations between complexity, emergence, management, measurement (metrics), sustainability and evolution have been labeled with these words for much of the final decade of the twentieth century. Approached through different fields of research, these topics and ways of thought, at times, seem incapable of converging in dialogue - never mind in conclusions. Yet, the very fields of complexity, emergence, and sustainability suggest that such dialogue occurs all the time – even when outsiders label it as incommensurable.

Managers faced with these issues might rephrase them as follows: Has our twenty-first century world – a world of unprecedented scientific advances, the Internet, and a permanent information revolution yet beset by corporate ethics scandals, terrorism, and global conflict – become so complex that that only portions of it can be “managed”? Or are we soon to be forced to admit that all we can do is “muddle through”? Are the linear lessons of business schools and of “management gurus” still applicable? Does the vocabulary of war or of games, which we use to talk about managing still, apply in this complex world? Or have we moved to a new era, marked by the vocabulary of artists not warriors or sportsmen – an era where the many shades of “grey” is not an expression but a stark reality? It seems as if proven patterns of interaction seldom work.

What is it like to attempt to “manage” in a world of uncertainty, where every situation proclaims its need to be treated “differently” with a respect for the local context and the cacophony of hundreds of competing claims? Is there a vocabulary, which can capture this uncertain multi-stakeholder world? Is there a manner by which “managers” can discuss goals and actions in their desire to “lead”?

Recent advances in the managerial sciences created a wealth of novel indexicals and indices (or indicators) of organizational performance. With modern technology, the collection of virtually innumerable classes of indices covering major human and economic variables has become an easy task: one that is both reliable and affordable. Modern data mining theory seeks to identify the principle components of indexical classes in order to create new descriptions for managers to use in classifying and communicating. These new descriptions allow for the generation or revelation of new options for managerial action. In effect, the goal is to create a specific description or ontology for the local dynamical structure of the firm, a structure that is metaphorically similar to the metabolic relations within an organism.

To generate such an ontology requires a meaningful classification of indexicals and indices into commensurate and incommensurate classes -- those that can engage in dialogue and those that cannot. One or more classifiers are needed to separate the indices into semantically related categories that capture the relevant description/ontology. If the goal of managers is to create conditions allowing for the emergence of desired (predetermined) structures, recognition of the commensurable semantic and semiotic content of the relevant organizational experience seems to be a desirable precondition. Such recognition can also allow for meaningful organizational learning. By contrast, the misclassification of metrics, indexicals, and indices could result in costly mistakes, which may disrupt existing or desired organizational structures. The risks of unrecognized or unforeseen strategic and tactical moves by the many other stakeholders in an organization's environment cannot be ignored if long-range managerial objectives are to be sustained.

The complexity of these tasks raises acute problems at the many disciplinary interfaces within a firm. Without dialogue, the meaning of indexicals and indices will be interpreted differently in various segments of management. Without dialogue, various segments of management may introduce local policies that are dynamically oppositional rather than appositional (neutrally co-existent) or symbiotic. Without dialogue, opportunities to acquire competitive advantages may be missed.

The emergence of novel indices and indexicals creates an opportunity for a qualitative step forward in constructing managerial ontologies – the set of descriptions the manager uses to cognize and communicate about the world. We call for an international interdisciplinary meeting of specialists in management, complexity, and emergence to explore such opportunities. A select group of scholars and practitioners will meet to discuss how such dialogue can truly happen - and its ramifications.

We seek to provide an environment for a well grounded interdisciplinary dialogue.

Contact: Barbara Mueller, Emergence and Complexity in Human Organizations (ECHO), phone: 1-239-597-7001, e-mail: bmueller@echo-conferences.com

Cost of Attendance: $195 which includes lunch both days, a welcome reception (Friday evening the 17 th ), and dinner on the 18th.