The Complexity Science Organizational Development Practitioner

Abstract

Complexity science ideas have recently begun to be applied to organizational dynamics. This set of ideas, primarily learned from the natural sciences, appears to hold great promise for improving organizational functioning. At this early stage, it has not been obvious how to apply some of these ideas to organizations. A wide variety of schemes and designs are being considered and attempted. By its nature, complexity science provides great variation in its approaches. At the same time, a common body of concepts exists among other differences. This paper will offer the first known taxonomy for understanding different and similar complexity science OD interventions.