Complexity, simplicity, simplexity

• Published in: European management journal Vol. 28; no. 2; pp. 85 - 94
• Main Authors: Miguel Pina, e Cunha, Rego, Arménio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01-04-2010; Elsevier; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Series: European Management Journal
• Subjects: Agency; Complex organization; Complexity; Complexity theory; Conceptualization; Dialectics; Management research; Management theory; Organization; Organization Simplicity Complexity Simplexity Dialectics; Organization theory; Simplexity; Simplicity; Simplification; Structural analysis; Studies; Dialectics; Organization; Simplicity; Simplexity; Complexity
• ISSN: 0263-2373; 1873-5681
• DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2009.04.006

“In the midst of order, there is chaos; but in the midst of chaos, there is order”, John Gribbin wrote in his book
Deep Simplicity (p. 76). In this dialectical spirit, we discuss the generative tension between complexity and simplicity in the theory and practice of management and organization. Complexity theory suggests that the relationship between complex environments and complex organizations advanced by the well-known Ashby’s law, may be reconsidered: only simple organization provides enough space for individual agency to match environmental turbulence in the form of complex organizational responses. We suggest that complex organizing may be paradoxically facilitated by a simple infrastructure, and that the theory of organizations may be viewed as resulting from the dialectical interplay between simplicity and complexity.