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Journal ArticleDOI

Transformation and regeneration in social systems: A dissipative structure perspective

Charles Smith
- 01 Dec 1986 - 
- Vol. 3, Iss: 4, pp 203-213
TLDR
In this paper, a paradigm originating within physical science research is used to frame a model of social system transformation and regeneration, and an illustrative case study from the NASA Apollo organization is presented.
Abstract
This paper focuses on the study of transformation and regeneration processes in social systems, and identifies aspects of these processes that have parallels across systems levels. A paradigm originating within physical science research is used to frame a model of social system transformation. Social system change literature is presented in terms of the model and implications for change agents and researchers are discussed. An illustrative case study from the NASA Apollo organization is presented.

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Journal ArticleDOI

Chaos Theory and Organization

TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that these processes are embedded in organizational characteristics and in the way organizations are managed, and that when in a chaotic domain, organizations are likely to exhibit the qualitative properties of chaotic systems.
Journal ArticleDOI

Conditioned emergence: a dissipative structures approach to transformation

TL;DR: By managing at the level of deep structure in social systems, organizations can gain some influence over self-organizing processes which are typically regarded as unpredictable in the natural sciences, but it is argued that this influence is limited to archetypal features and that detailed forms and behaviors are emergent properties of the system.
Journal ArticleDOI

Organizational Emergence: The Origin and Transformation of Branson, Missouri's Musical Theaters

TL;DR: The study demonstrates the value of conceptualizing evolution in terms of emergence, highlighting distinctions between the nascent complexity approach to evolution and the neo-Darwinian evolutionary approach that has dominated the theoretical conversation in organization science for the past generation.
Journal ArticleDOI

Why Study the Complexity Sciences in the Social Sciences

TL;DR: The authors provide an overview of the complexity sciences, provide a justification and rationale for their inclusion into the social sciences, and review the current organizational literature which utilizes and applies concepts from the complexity sciences to organizationalphenomena.
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Self-Organization in Small Groups: A Study of Group Effectiveness Within Non-Equilibrium Conditions

TL;DR: In this paper, a study assessing the usefulness of the self-organization paradigm as applied to the small group is described, in the context of a Tavistock-like group intervention, wherein the necessary condition for selforganization, a situation of turbulence, was induced within experimental groups.
References
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