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Complex adaptive system

About: Complex adaptive system is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3190 publications have been published within this topic receiving 111947 citations. The topic is also known as: Complex adaptive system, CAS.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The theory of graceful extensibility is introduced which expresses fundamental characteristics of the adaptive universe that constrain the search for sustained adaptability and attempts to provide a formal base and common language that characterizes how complex systems sustain and fail to sustain adaptability as demands change.
Abstract: The paper introduces the theory of graceful extensibility which expresses fundamental characteristics of the adaptive universe that constrain the search for sustained adaptability The theory explains the contrast between successful and unsuccessful cases of sustained adaptability for systems that serve human purposes Sustained adaptability refers to the ability to continue to adapt to changing environments, stakeholders, demands, contexts, and constraints (in effect, to adapt how the system in question adapts) The key new concept at the heart of the theory is graceful extensibility Graceful extensibility is the opposite of brittleness, where brittleness is a sudden collapse or failure when events push the system up to and beyond its boundaries for handling changing disturbances and variations As the opposite of brittleness, graceful extensibility is the ability of a system to extend its capacity to adapt when surprise events challenge its boundaries The theory is presented in the form of a set of 10 proto-theorems derived from just two assumptions—in the adaptive universe, resources are always finite and change continues The theory contains three subsets of fundamentals: managing the risk of saturation, networks of adaptive units, and outmaneuvering constraints The theory attempts to provide a formal base and common language that characterizes how complex systems sustain and fail to sustain adaptability as demands change

64 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Drawing on the apparent similarities in these processes, self‐organizing activities and the natural emergence of new systems as a model for a new type of learning environment are described.
Abstract: Individual and group development is an essential element of achieving competitive advantage through people. The building and transfer of knowledge is widely discussed in the literature with respect to explicit knowledge, and some authors have gone on to address environments for learning and even building tacit knowledge. Separately, complexity theory suggests a process of self‐organization and adaptation that, in some respects, parallels an environment of learning. Extensive interaction, learning by doing, and experimenting seem to be not only the foundation for individual development, but also a fundamental part of the natural adaptive process for organizations as complex adaptive systems. One problem noted, however, is that the current literature has done little to highlight the parallels between individual development and complex adaptive organizational systems. Drawing on the apparent similarities in these processes, describes self‐organizing activities and the natural emergence of new systems as a model for a new type of learning environment. Explores the idea of facilitating self‐organizing learning activities in a separate organizational space within existing organizations, and outlines the theoretical elements for making such a space successful.

64 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This contribution provides selected considerations on the consideration of forests as complex adaptive systems, in the form of a commented discussion with examples from the literature produced in the last decade.

63 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The influence of human resource management on innovation has attracted considerable research attention over the last decade as mentioned in this paper, however, existing studies have primarily focused on the macro-level huma-...
Abstract: The influence of human resource management on innovation has attracted considerable research attention over the last decade. However, existing studies have primarily focused on the macro-level huma...

63 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Leadership that uses complexity principles offers opportunities in the chaotic healthcare environment to focus less on prediction and control and more on fostering relationships and creating conditions in which complex adaptive systems can evolve to produce creative outcomes.
Abstract: The emerging field of complexity science offers an alternative leadership strategy for the chaotic, complex healthcare environment. A survey revealed that healthcare leaders intuitively support principles of complexity science. Leadership that uses complexity principles offers opportunities in the chaotic healthcare environment to focus less on prediction and control and more on fostering relationships and creating conditions in which complex adaptive systems can evolve to produce creative outcomes.

63 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
202336
202269
2021120
2020132
2019152
2018191