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Professor: Chris Francovich, Ed.D.
Office Phone: 208-773-0694
E-mail: coherence@adelphia.net
Office hours: Please call for an appointment: 208-773-0694

Class Logistics:
Friday evenings 6-10
Room: RC153/112
Dates: Jan 13, 20; Feb 3, 17; Mar 3, 10, 24; Apr 7

Course Overview

This course is a survey of complexity theories as understood or applied in society, organizations, and to the self. The course is also an inquiry into the roots of complexity thinking. Inquiring into complexity is an outgrowth of the possibilities and cynicism of the post-modern landscape. Communications and the consequent physical networks of coordination and movement have increased the complexity and uncertainty of society. This course is a seminar on this general situation.
The course begins with an overview of our own perspectives on complexity. Selected readings will introduce chaos theory and dissipative systems. We will also look in depth at complex adaptive systems. We will critically analyze and review current applications and interpretations of complexity and systems thinking through the lens of participative and ethical leadership and governance.
Selected readings will help bridge the gap between rational, natural law epistemologies and the epistemology of self-reference. Complexity as an object of inquiry requires patience, tolerance of ambiguity, uncertainty, and a willingness to both share and accept your own and others’ incomprehension and confusion. This course is structured as a dialogic participative inquiry. Dr. Francovich will present ideas using slides and notes. We will do a group project to be developed at the first meeting.

Course Objectives

• Develop a sound foundation in the basic vocabulary and concepts of complexity
• Understand and apply fundamental concepts of complexity to our own experience or work situations
• Stimulate and stretch our thinking about leadership, complexity, and the world

Expectations, Assignments, & Grading

• Read all materials (25%)
• Prepare a leadership case study that illustrates both the application of and the need for complexity thinking. This case study will describe and analyze a leadership opportunity that will illustrate your comprehension, interpretation, and application of the theories & readings developed in the course. (50%).
• Attend class, work on group project & participate in class dialogue/discussions (25%).

Case Study is to be between 10 - 15 word-processed pages of text, using the APA format for citing the works of others and references. The paper is due 1 week after the final class and is to be emailed to coherence@adelphia.net

Required Texts

Axelrod, R., & Cohen, M. (2000). Harnessing Complexity: Organizational implications of a scientific frontier. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-00550-0

Stacey, R. D., Griffin, D., & Shaw, P. (2000). Complexity and management: Fad or radical challenge to systems thinking?. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-24761-6

Griffin, D. (2002). The Emergence of Leadership: Linking self-organization and ethics. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-24917-1

Class Outline

Pre-class reading: Richardson_Cilliers_What_is_ComplexityScience.pdf (available on Blackboard)
Jan 13:
Readings discussed: Richardson_Cilliers_What_is_ComplexityScience.pdf
Reading assignment: Harnessing Complexity pp. xi - 61 and Richardson_SysTheory&Complexity#1&2.pdf (available on Blackboard)
Jan 20:
Readings discussed: Harnessing Complexity and Richardson_SysTheory&Complexity#1&2.pdf
Reading assignment: Harnessing Complexity pp. 62 - 160 & Boulding_GenSysTheory.pdf (available on Blackboard)
Feb 3:
Readings discussed: Harnessing Complexity & Boulding_GenSysTheory.pdf
Reading assignment: Complexity & Management pp. 1 - 84 & Ashby_selfOrgSys.pdf & Applied_Svyantek&Brown1.pdf (available on Blackboard)
Feb 17:
Readings Discussed: Complexity & Management & Ashby_selfOrgSys.pdf & Applied_Svyantek&Brown1.pdf
Reading Assignment: Complexity & Management pp 85 - 126 & Foundations of Niklas Luhmann's Theory of Social Systems.doc (available on Blackboard)
Mar 3 -
Readings Discussed: Complexity & Management & Foundations of Niklas Luhmann's Theory of Social Systems.doc
Reading Assignment: Complexity & Management pp 127 - 194 & Price_Complicatedness and Complexity.pdf & BLatour_Interobjectivity.pdf (available on Blackboard)
Mar 10 -
Readings Discussed: Complexity & Management Price_Complicatedness & Complexity.pdf & BLatour_Interobjectivity.pdf
Reading Assignment: Emergence of Leadership pp. 1 - 122 & SelfOrganizingLeadership #1&2_Knowles.pdf (available on Blackboard)
Mar 24 -
Readings Discussed: Emergence of Leadership & SelfOrganizingLeadership#1&2_Knowles.pdf
Reading Assignment: Emergence of Leadership pp. 124- 219 & Capra_Complexity&Life.pdf (available on Blackboard)
Apr 7- Readings Discussed: Emergence of Leadership & Capra_Complexity&Life.pdf

Recommended Reading:
Gleick, J. (1987). Chaos: Making a new science. New York: Penguin Books.
Waldrop, M. M. (1992). Complexity: The emerging science at the edge of order and chaos. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Holland, J. H. (1995). Hidden Order: How adaptation builds complexity. New York: Basic Books.

References & Bibliography
Argyris, C. (1999). On Organizational Learning. Malden. Massachusetts: Blackwell Business.
Bateson, G. (1979). Mind and nature: A necessary unity. New York: Bantam Books.
Bereiter, C. (2002). Education and Mind in the Knowledge Age. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Blackmore, S. (1999). The Meme Machine. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Bohm, D. (1980). Wholeness and the implicate order. London: Routledge.
Bowker, G. C., Leigh-Starr, S., Turner, W., Gasser Les, & Eds. (1997). Social Science, Technical Systems, and Cooperative Work: Beyond the great divide. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Burke, W. W. (2002). Organization Change: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Dewey, J. (1958). Experience and nature. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.
Douglas, M. (1986). How institutions think. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press.
Engestrom, Y. (1999). Activity theory and individual and social transformation. In Y. Engestrom, R. Miettinen & R.-l. Punamaki (Eds.), Perspectives on activity theory (pp. 19-39). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ferdman, B. M. (1990). Literacy and cultural identity. Harvard Educational Review, 60(2), 181-204.
Gibson, J. J. (1977). The theory of affordances. In R. Shaw & J. Bransford (Eds.), Perceiving, acting, and knowing (pp. 67-82). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Habermas, J. (1981, 1987). The theory of communicative action (Vol 1 & 2) (T. McCarthy, Trans.). Boston: Beacon Press.
Heft, H. (2001). Ecological Psychology in Context: James Gibson, Roger Barker, and the Legacy of William James’ Radical Empiricism. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Heider, F. (1926). Thing and Medium. In On Perception and Event Structure, and the Psychological Environment (pp. 1 - 35). (Psychological Issues, vol. 1, no. 3). New York: International Universities Press.
Luhmann, N. (1984/1995). Social Systems (J. J. Bednarz & D. Baecker, Trans.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Maturana, H. (1978). Biology of Language: The epistemology of reality. In G. Miller & E. Lennenberg (Eds.), Psychology and Biology of Language and Thought: Essays in honor of Eric Lennenberg (pp. 27-63). New York: Academic Press Inc.
Maturana, H., & Varela, F. (1980). Autopoiesis and cognition: The realization of the living. Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Company.
Maturana, H., & Varela, F. (1987). The tree of knowledge; The biological roots of human understanding. Boston, MA: Shambhala.
Merali, Y. (2004). Complexity and Information Systems. In J. Mingers & L. Willcocks (Eds.), Social Theory and Philosophy for Information Systems (pp. 407 - 446). Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Mingers, J. (1995). Self-producing systems; Implications and applications of autopoiesis. New York: Plenum Press.
Rayner, A. D. (1997). Degrees of Freedom: Living in Dynamic Boundaries. London, UK: Imperial College Press.
Reed, E. S. (1996). Encountering the world: Toward an ecological psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rosen, R. (2000). Essays on Life Itself. In Complexity in Ecological Systems. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Schoggen, P. (1989). Behavior Setting: A Revision and Extension of Roger G. Barker's Ecological Psychology. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Searle, J. (1995). The construction of social reality. New York: The Free Press.
Strauss, A. L. (1993). Continual permutations of action. New York: Aldine De Gruyter.
Suchman, L. A. (1987). Plans and Situated Actions : The Problem of Human-Machine Communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wheatley, M. J. (1994). Leadership and the new science. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.