Complex Systems and the Conjunctive State

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Complex Systems and the Conjunctive State

• William H. Newell
• Western College Program
• Miami University (Ohio)
• Jack W. Meek
• College of Business and Public Management
• University of La Verne (California)

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Complex Systems and the Conjunctive State

• ANZSYS/Managing the Complex V in Christchurch,
  New Zealand, December 5-7, 2005.
• Feedback encouraged to meekj_at_ulv.edu or
  newellwh_at_muohio.edu

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Complex Systems and the Conjunctive State

• Focus of Our Interest Urban Systems
• Focus on metropolitan governance
• Issues of coordination in an era of tragedy of
  the commons
• Of urban sprawl
• Of transportation congestion
• Of Health Access
• Other issues

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Complex Systems and the Conjunctive State

• Focus of Interest Urban Systems
• Emerging forms of governance
• Responding to gaps of solution making found in
  jurisdictionally based governmental systems

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Complex Systems and the Conjunctive State

• Focus of Interest Urban Systems
• Emerging forms of governance include policy
  networks
• Regional alliances
• Neighborhood alliances
• Governmental alliances
• Non-profit coordination

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Systems Perspective (cont.)

• Political Systems/Functions
• Moving From Simple Systems (Easton 1953)
• To Complex Systems

Dye, Thomas R., Understanding Public Policy
(Prentice Hall Publications,1995 p. 39).
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Systems Failure

• Failure of the Representative Democratic
  Accountability Feedback Loop
• Democratic Deficits
• Thinning of Reality

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System Behavior Complexity Theory

• Implications of Complex Systems (Behavior)
• End of Hierarchy
• Devolution and Communitarianism
• Control is in the Hands of the Many
• Autonomy is not Possible
• Risk and Accountability is Jointly Shared
• Trust is a Challenge
• Anarchy is Possible
• Self-Organizing (Intermediate Structures) Emerge

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System Behavior Complexity Theory

• Characteristics of Complex Systems
• Multiple Logics (contradictory rules)
• Non-Linear (formally unpredictable)
• Dynamical (not in equilibrium)
• Not Deterministic (but not completely random)
• Often Not Well-Behaved (exhibiting sudden large
  changes of behavior)
• Open With Permeable Boundaries, Produce Effects
  Disproportional To Their Causes

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System Behavior Complexity Theory

• Contain Paradoxes

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Complexity and Post-Modern Solution Themes

• Networks
• Dialogues

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Advances in the Complexity Literature

• Human complex systems are now generally
  understood to be comprised of many diverse
  components that are loosely and often nonlinearly
  linked and that produce emergent patterns of
  systemic behavior.

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Advances in the Complexity Literature

• Complexity is now often distinguished from chaos
  by theorists interested in human behavior who now
  reject as inappropriate to human beings the
  mindless iteration of simple invariant rules
  underlying chaos theory.
• (Anderson 1999 Lissack 2002 McDaniel Driebe
  2005 Mitleton-Kelly 2003 Newell 2001, 2003
  Newell Meek 2000 Smedes 2004),

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Advances in the Complexity Literature

• The dominant model has become complex adaptive
  systems (CAS), which focuses on the holistic
  patterns formed through human interactions
• Weve come a long ways from models of complexity
  drawn from the natural sciences and applied to
  the social sciences without regard for the
  distinctive characteristics of human beings.

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Advances in the Complexity Literature

• The inferences drawn from CAS models for the
  management of organizations are considerably more
  useful than those drawn from earlier natural
  science-based models (see Newell Meek 2000).

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Advances in the Complexity Literature

• Anderson (1999) argues that managers should
  influence agents indirectly by changing the
  fitness landscape (e.g., providing longer-term
  rewards, setting priorities, and choosing the
  organizations domain) through trial and error

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Advances in the Complexity Literature

• Weick (McDaniel Driebe 2005) that To prepare
  for the unexpected means that you have to offset
  strong cognitive predispositions such as
  confirmation bias, fallacy of centrality, hubris,
  normalization, typification, and bottom-up
  salience of cues (63)

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Advances in the Complexity Literature

• Holley (McDaniel Driebe 2005)
• Underlying self-organizing systemsare simple
  design principles which she enumerates (169)
• Lewin Regine (McMillan 2002)
• Organizational practices turn into rules so keep
  them few, and to try small-scale experiments
  instead of fast, large-scale interventions (104)

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Advances in the Complexity Literature

• Bonifacio Bouquet (Minati Pessa 2002)
  Knowledge management should be perceived as the
  problem of coordinatingmultiple sources of
  knowledge in a distributed (that is, non
  centralized) way (300)
• Espejo (Mitleton-Kelly 2003)
• organizational complexity needs to be embodied
  in autonomous systems within autonomous systems
  within autonomous systems (53).

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Advances in the Complexity Literature

• Authors generally agree on the importance of
  flattening hierarchies, facilitating informal
  networks, and diversifying agents.

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Complex Systems and the Conjunctive State

• Network Theorists Urban Systems
• Rethinking Our Governance
• Involvement in (policy) networks is more
  apparent.
• Horizontal Links
• Management Implications
• Personal Skills Implications

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Complex Systems and the Conjunctive State

• Focus of Study Urban Systems
• Rethinking Our Governance
• Moving from Hierarchies to Networks
• Network Involvement Instrument Findings

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Complex Systems and the Conjunctive State

• Network Involvement--Formal Networks
• Network Characteristics
• 65 with 11 or more orgs involved
• 81 network abides by rules
• 47 no sovereign in network

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Complex Systems and the Conjunctive State

• Network Involvement--Formal Networks
• Individual Network Involvement
• Frequency 32 daily
• Time Spent 23 (ave) 50 _at_ 10 or less
• Resources Spent 20 (ave) 75 _at_ 10 or less
• Personal Influence 19 high, 35medium, 45low

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Complex Systems and the Conjunctive State

• Network Involvement--Formal Networks
• Network Value to Individual
• Increases Responsibility in Org 62
• Portion Individual Success is Dependent on
  Involvement 35 (Ave) 60 _at_ 25 or less

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Political Systems and Environments

• Network Involvement--Formal Networks
• Network Value to Organization
• Network involvement meshes with Organizational
  goals 97
• Quality of services dependent on network 68

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Political Systems and Environments

• Network Involvement--Informal Networks
• Network Characteristics
• 63 with 11 or more orgs involved
• 76--network abides by rules
• 55--no sovereign control in network

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Political Systems and Environments

• Network Involvement--Informal Networks
• Individual Network Involvement
• Frequency 66 monthly or less often
• Time Spent 9.5 (ave) 88 _at_ 10 or less
• Resources Spent 4.7 (ave) 60 devote 5-10
• Personal Influence 18(high), 30 (medium), 52
  (low)

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Political Systems and Environments

• Network Involvement--Informal Networks
• Network Value to Individual
• Increases Responsibility in Org 20
• Portion Success Dependent on Involvement 24

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Political Systems and Environments

• Network Involvement--Informal Networks
• Network Value to Organization
• Meshes with Goals of organization 93
• Quality of Service Delivery Dependent on
  Involvement 54

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Political Systems and Environments

• Network Involvement, Complex Systems and
  Conjunction
• Horizontal vs Vertical Management
• Peer and Colleague relations vs Superior and
  Subordinate relations
• Implications for Management Skills?
• What are the skills of collaboration?
• Extended leadership roles across departments,
  organizations
• Diversity of participations in networks
• Collaborative Leadership Instrument.

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Political Systems and Environments

• Collaboration in Urban Environments
• Agranoff--The era of the managers
  cross-boundary interdependency challenge has
  arrived, as has the world of working in the
  network of organizations. Public functions are no
  longer the exclusive domain of governments. (p.
  vii)

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Political Systems and Environments

• Collaboration in Urban Environments
• Agranoff--Types of Collaborative Management
  Activities
• Information Sharing
• Adjustment Seeking
• Policy making and strategy making
• Resource Exchange
• Project Based

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Political Systems and Environments

• Collaboration in Urban Environments
• These emergent collaborative management skills do
  not supplant the traditional list of interlocal
  management actions, structural adaptations and
  join purchasing or servicing, but they add to the
  expanding nature of what needs to be known about
  managers collaborative activity within
  communities. (p. 97)

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Political Systems and Environments

• Collaboration in Urban Environments
• The contacts, activities, policy tools and other
  connections discovered in this study lead us to
  conclude that the capacities required to operate
  successfully in collaborative settings are
  different from the capacities needed to succeed
  at managing a single organization (p. 175)

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Political Systems and Environments

• Collaboration in Urban Environments
• . . . collaborative management is in need of a
  knowledge base equivalent to the organizational
  paradigm of bureaucratic management that can both
  inform and improve practice (p. 175)

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Political Systems and Environments

• Collaboration in Urban Environments
• Agranoff--Findings--knowledge base on
• Skills
• Collaborative settings
• Factors to improve success (trust, perception of
  common interest)
• Power and Authority
• Accountability
• Added Values

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Political Systems and Environments

• Lessons From Agranoff--Ten Lessons on How to
  Manage in Network
• From Robert Agranoff, Leveraging Networks A
  Guide for Public Managers Working Across
  Organizations (IBM Endowment for The Business of
  Government, March 2003.

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Political Systems and Environments

• Be a representative of your agency and the
  network.
• (balance the dualism of agency and collective
  concerns--boundary spanner, continuous
  involvement)

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Political Systems and Environments

• 2. Take a Share of the Administrative Burden
• (most network staffs are limited volunteering is
  a necessity)

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Political Systems and Environments

• 3. Operate by agenda orchestration.
• (Managing the interaction time, learn the
  players, move toward a tangible accomplishment.

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Political Systems and Environments

• 4. Recognize shared expertise-based authority
• (change hats from boss to member, everyone can
  learn from the network experience, understand
  everyone is in charge)

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Political Systems and Environments

• 5. Stay within the decision bounds of your
  network
• (follow core mission, dont step on agency
  decision prerogatives)

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Political Systems and Environments

• 6. Accommodate and adjust while maintaining
  purpose.
• (talk it out, it is a protracted effort)

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Political Systems and Environments

• 7. Be creative as possible.
• (Networks rely on shared information, one must be
  different than the sum of the parts)

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Political Systems and Environments

• 8. Be patient and use interpersonal skills
• (Be patient, push and you lose, recognize the
  learning curve)

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Political Systems and Environments

• 9. Recruit constantly
• (touch as many bases as you can)

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Political Systems and Environments

• 10. Emphasize incentives.
• (Keep the information flowing, outreach, let
  people know who you are.)

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Political Systems and Environments

• Russell Linden, Working Across Boundaries
• Benefits of Collaboration
• Better use of scarce resources cost savings
• Ability to create something that you cant create
  on your own
• Higher quality, more integrated producer or
  service for the end users
• Potential for organizational and individual
  learning
• Better ability to achieve important outcomes (p.
  7)

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Political Systems and Environments

• Russell Linden, Working Across Boundaries
• Framework for Collaboration
• Basics in Place
• Principals have open, trusting relationships
• Stakes are high
• Participants include a constituency for
  collaboration
• Leadership follows collaborative principles

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Political Systems and Environments

• Russell Linden, Working Across Boundaries
• Keys to Successful Collaboration
• Maintain continuity of leadership among the
  parties
• Help each party play to its strengths
• Keep collaborative efforts voluntary, not
  mandatory
• Acquire flexible schedules
• Measure and post results of the collaborative
  effort
• Balance the need to plan with the requirements
  for results (p. 187)

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Complex Systems and Conjunction

• Table 1 CAS Management Heuristics and PA Network
  Literature

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Looking Ahead Three Challenges

• Interdisciplinary Integration
• It is one thing to identify the pattern of a
  complex system and understand what lies behind
  it. It is quite another to predict the
  consequences of introducing a change in the
  system.
• It is even possible that understanding of a
  complex problem may simply not lead to its
  solution. In fact, complexity theorists who
  focus on chaotic systems tend to emphasize the
  unpredictability of changes to systems
  characterized by complexity.

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Looking Ahead Three Challenges

• The Limits of CAS
• Because those groups, institutions, and spheres
  are not included explicitly in the model, their
  influence on behavior within the complex system
  is indirect at best.
• By ignoring what takes place inside each of those
  spheres, their model cannot explain why an impact
  changes the result is an incomplete explanation
  of the behavior. As Janssen (2002) wryly
  observes, CAS models do not necessarily
  represent theoretical insights from behavioral
  science (7).

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Looking Ahead Three Challenges

• Unresolved Tensions
• How does one balance out human needs for
  stability and predictability and the
  functionality of human habits and routines with
  institutional needs for adaptability and
  emergence?
• How can a manager determine when employees need
  free reign to move the organization towards far
  from equilibrium self-organization, and when
  they need to be sacked for incompetence?

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Looking Ahead Three Challenges

• Unresolved Tensions
• What features of complex adaptive systems are
  essential, and what ones are the product of the
  way those systems are currently modeled?
• What role do individual agents (located
  simultaneously within numerous societal
  subsystems) play in the power law distribution of
  emergence (that emergent effects are replicated
  on multiple scales) (Anderson 1999 Bentley
  Maschner 2003 Bak in Cowan 1999)? I.e., is there
  a human source of the fractal properties of
  emergence in human institutions?

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Looking Ahead Three Challenges

• Unresolved Tensions
• How complicated, vague, variable, or stochastic
  can the rules followed by agents be and still
  produce emergent self-organization? After all,
  individuals constantly balance out conflicting
  I and We imperatives, with the tension
  between those imperatives shifting in response to
  factors in many dimensions.

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Looking Ahead Three Challenges

• IN SUMMARY
• We have had identified an emergent trend in
  metropolitan governanceconjunctionthat calls
  upon an understanding of management and
  administration.
• It is found that network researchers--based on
  grounded theoryhave found similar management
  lessons as those found in the complexity
  literature.
• The challenge ahead is to understand these
  emergent features from both analytical and
  practical perspectives so as to advance our
  understanding of managing complex environments