Organizations as complex adaptive systems

As part of the National Center for Border Security and Immigration (NCBSI) led by the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), researchers from the University of Washington, Wayne State University, and UTEP conducted a three-site study of border security operations and the role of command, control and communication (C3) systems in support of those operations. While inevitably bringing some positive capability to the environment, if C3 systems are not consciously aligned with desired practices and decision-making, the implications will not always be for the better. This is especially true of C3 systems in the border security environment because these systems are intimately intertwined with complex and critical workflow and decision-making processes, often in the context of complex and, at times, competing missions.

Leadership is in crisis. Technology has enabled our complex and interconnected world where it is
much easier for organizations and entire ecosystems to collaborate – quickly – while older mindsets based
on the organization as a machine model are proving to be grossly inadequate. Simultaneously, we have
failed to predict and to understand, for example the cascading financial system failures that threaten lives,
institutions and nations. This paper takes a complexity thinking perspective to carefully examine
specialization, diversity and organizational change in new ways so that we can extend our leadership
thinking about the adaptability of our organizations. Because diversity is a critical condition for complex
organizational change, we explore diversity from two disciplinary perspectives. First, we take a learning
science (education) perspective to find that leaders should consider organizations as emergent collectives
that are able to learn and to become capable of “learning ahead” in turbulent contexts. We then explore,
from an organizational science perspective, how diversity exists as an essential condition for identifying
differences and novelties as seeds for innovations (changes) made possible only by collective work
attracted to these novelties. Finally, the author presents a framework for understanding and leading and
knowing the potentials of diverse, smarter, more adaptive complex organizational ecosystems.

Un sistema complejo es aquel donde la interacción entre sus agentes produce las reacciones del sistema tomado como un todo. En el lenguaje común, una interacción es la acción que se ejerce recíprocamente entre dos o más objetos, dos o más personas, dos o más organizaciones e, incluso, entre dos o más fenómenos, que a su vez generan uno o más efectos. [1]

This paper illustrates how the payoff matrices of the single group Prisoner's Dilemma (PD) and the Intergroup Prisoner's Dilemma (IPD) differentially reinforce cooperation when participants care about relative performance. Examples of particular payoff patterns and thought experiments using a computational simulation demonstrate that withholding cooperation is not always the dominant strategy in the IPD. In the intergroup structure, three conditions differentially reinforce cooperation. When competing groups have equal numbers of cooperators, withholding cooperation is always the dominant strategy just as in the single group structure. In contrast, when one group has more cooperators than the other group, cooperation by its members can dominate withholding cooperation by members of the other group. Thus, the relative advantage of one group over another increases the payoff for cooperation in some configurations of the IPD over the payoff in the PD. Relative payoff is thus an untheorized variable motivating cooperation in the IPD.

Drawing on complexity theory, this paper argues that common rational assumptions undergirding current reform policies (such as linearity and uniformity) limit our understanding of how policy is enacted through complex social interactions. In a three-year exploratory study, we examined the implementation of a reform policy targeted at improving a consistently underperforming school district under progressive sanction. We utilized longitudinal social network modeling to illustrate how districts can be conceptualized as complex adaptive systems. Results identify a distinct complex pattern of social interactions underlying the process of policy implementation. District and site leaders tended to form relationships based on reciprocity, local neighborhoods, similarity, popularity, and administrative experience. Implications for policy and directions for future research are discussed.

1 Per un'analisi di questo modello epistemologico, e del modo in cui esso ha disciplinato anche il progetto di un'epistemologia scientifica nel nostro secolo, rinvio a G. BOCCHI, M. CERUTI, Disordine e costruzione. Un'interpretazione pistemological dell'opera di Jean Piaget, Feltrinelli, Milano 1981, in particolare Cap. 6. 2 Cfr. in particolare R. DESCARTES, Le Discours de la méthode pour bien conduire sa raison et chercher la vérité dans les sciences, J. Maire, Leyde 1637 (tr. it. Discorso sul metodo, Armando, Roma 1999); ID., Meditationes de prima philosophia, M. Soly, Paris 1641 (tr. it. Meditazioni metafisiche, in ID., Opere filosofiche, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1986, vol. 2. 4 Per una delineazione delle linee fondamentali di sviluppo del pensiero evoluzionista cfr. E. MAYR, The Growth of Biological Thought, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) 1982 (tr. it. Storia del pensiero biologico. Diversità, evoluzione, eredità, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 1990);

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Organizational adaptation is equivocal. On the one hand, the concept is ubiquitous in management research and acts as the glue binding together the central issues of organizational change, performance, and survival. On the other hand, it lurks around in various guises (e.g., "fit," "alignment," "congruence," and "strategic change") studied from multiple theoretical streams (e.g., behavioral, resource based, and institutional) and at different levels of analysis (e.g., organization and industry levels). In a novel approach to reviewing 443 adaptation articles that leverages both computational and hand-coded analysis, we produce an interactive visual of the themes most studied by adaptation scholars. We inductively draw out a definition of adaptation as intentional decision making undertaken by organizational members, leading to observable actions that aim to reduce the distance between an organization and its economic and institutional environments. We then review the literature across three main areas of inquiry and six theoretical perspectives that surfaced from our analysis and identify 11 difficulties that have hampered adaptation research in the past 50 years. Our review suggests ways to address these difficulties to enable future research to develop and cumulate. Acknowledgments: We are thankful to editor Jorge Walter and the two anonymous reviewers for their invaluable feedback and guidance during the review process. This work was supported by an SSHRC grant (No. 430-2015-0670) and the Scotiabank Digital Banking Lab at Ivey Business School.

Complexity leadership theory (CLT) is about balancing formal and informal organization to leverage dynamics of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) and produce learning, creativity, and adaptation in organizations. Based on interviews with sixteen agile coaches (AC) at Spotify, this study examines how AC practice enabling leadership, a key balancing force in complexity leadership. Coaches practice enabling leadership by increasing the context-sensitivity of others, supporting other leaders, establishing and reinforcing simple principles, observing group dynamics, surfacing conflict and facilitating and encouraging constructive dialogue. The AC as complexity leader values being present, observing and reacting in the moment. Findings suggest flexible structure provided by an attentive coach may prove a fruitful way to navigate and balance autonomy and alignment in organizations.

This qualitative study set out to identify behaviors and practices of individuals who foster innovation in others. It examined the developmental role of sponsors and unique organizational practices at a company that has a reputation for innovation. The structure and cultural features of “Goodman & Associates” were designed by the founder 50 years ago for the stated purpose of creating an environment for innovation. These features include a flat, organic structure and no traditional managers.
The researcher conducted a multiple-case study. The primary method of data collection was 18 in-depth semi-structured interviews with eight innovators, six sponsors, and four individuals with broad perspectives designated as organizational observers. These individuals reported their perceptions of what individuals need to innovate and how sponsors and organizational factors impact them. Additional data was collected through a focus group study and review of company documents. The inquiry was guided by three research questions: (1) What do individuals need to be innovative in this organization? (2) How do sponsors impact the creativity and innovation of individuals? And (3) How do this organization’s practices impact creativity and innovation?
The primary finding was that individuals need a set of personal factors and a conducive environment to innovate. The personal factors include skills, motivation, and
a set of qualities that constitute an “innovator temperament.” In addition to the skills of their professions, they need skills in business and finance, understanding customer requirements, and relationship building. The conducive environment includes sponsors who balance several tensions in providing personal and task support to innovators. They balance focus and freedom for the innovators; they provide protection from organizational pressures while applying their own pressure in the form of developmental feedback and direct challenges. Sponsors also help innovators learn how to accumulate the credibility and networks they need to innovate and are willing to “lend” their own credibility and networks until the innovators have their own.
The conducive environment also consists of organizational features, such as a structure that facilitates information flow and relationships and a dynamic organizational climate that expects and enables innovation.

Urban designers and urban planners should never uncritically rely on policy prescriptions purportedly derived from neoclassical economic theory concerning their respective disciplines or specialized praxis.  Although neoclassical economists often claim their advice is based on such supposedly objective, universal, scientific concepts as “Pareto efficiency” and “rationality,” nothing could be further from the truth. Both the theoretical foundation of neoclassical economics as well as its practical policy implications are not objective nor universal nor scientific, but, instead, constitute little more than convoluted expressions of a mathematized libertarian ideology that attempts to conceal its highly subjective nature and myriad value judgments beneath a mind-numbing cascade of complicated equations that define toy models with virtually no connection to reality other than the exhortation that they somehow offer policymakers a guide for optimizing the social outcome of economic activity by promoting the relentless pursuit of individual self-interest as if the entire process were guided by an “invisible hand.”

Neoclassical economists have simply framed the problem incorrectly based on an a priori ideological paradigm in which planning is disconnected from and antithetical to market forces, but this is deeply mistaken. It is not a question of planning or the market. This is a false dichotomy. Government intervention, regulation and planning actually define the market. Planning and the market will always coexist in a mixed economy. The real question is how we define the market through government policy and which social resources we allow to be allocated on the basis of price (i.e., ability to pay) and which we decide to allocate on the basis of alternative values (e.g., fundamental human need or justice).  This presentation presentation explores the foregoing thesis under the following four major headings:

(1) Is Neoclassical Economics Relevant to Urban Design?
(2) The Arrow-Debreu Model and the Theory of Second Best
(3) Utility and Pareto Efficiency for Urban Planners
(4) A “New Science of the City” or New Moral Vision?

will provide an excellent international forum for sharing knowledge and results in theory, methodology and applications of Artificial Intelligence and its advances. The Conference looks for significant contributions to all major fields of the Artificial Intelligence in theoretical and practical aspects. The aim of the Conference is to provide a platform to the researchers and practitioners from both academia as well as industry to meet and share cutting-edge development in the field. Authors are solicited to contribute to the Conference by submitting articles that illustrate research results, projects, surveying works and industrial experiences that describe significant advances in the following areas, but are not limited to.

This article seeks to theoretically substantiate Marc Sageman’s claims of a “leaderless jihad” through the application of the conceptual framework offered by the novel scientific paradigm of complexity theory. It is argued that jihadist networks, such as those behind the September 11 attacks and the bombings in London and Madrid, can be profitably understood in terms of complex adaptive systems, emergent organisations that coalesce and self-organise in a decentralised fashion. Complexity sheds new light on the jihadist movement by providing an account of the bottom-up self-organisation of its networks and the systems of distributed intelligence which allow them to operate and pursue successful attacks on the basis of partial and localised information, and this despite the strenuous efforts at counter-terrorism deployed by states.

Las múltiples condiciones de Venezuela requieren de muchos conocimientos de antecedentes para comprender la situación del venezolano de a pie pues comprende condiciones establecidas desde la existencia de la antigua Unión Soviética y su influencia sobre la política Cubana.

Abstract:
Developing the Global Strategy
New vision on sustaining dynamic equilibrium in humankind  society
    regarding the article the “5 misunderstandings about culture evolution”  by Joseph Henrich & Robert Boyd & Peter J. Richerson
    http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/boyd/HenrichBoydRichersonHumNat08.pdf

    in  the summary of that article the 5 cultural evolution problems questions are posed.  They  are regarded. As a result new strategy  of Global development under the modern social  and communication conditions is  being worked out 
Following the work the “5 misunderstanding about cultural evolution” is the  article by Robert Boyd “Why culture is common but the cultural evolution is rare”.
    http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/boyd/BoydRichersonProcBritAcad96.pdf
    This problem is regarded here as well and some solution is offered

It is argued that to define social systems as non-biological is to deny their intrinsic biological groundedness which affects their complex system dynamics.  In the case of human social systems, the ecological phenomenon of human society should not be confused with human social organizations as cultural artifacts.

La complessità della realtà, insieme fisica e virtuale, nella quale siamo immersi richiede una riflessione su come realizzare una integrazione tra il mondo del digitale e l'architettura contemporanea. In particolare, l'articolo intende esplorare il modo in cui le informazioni virtuali possano divenire materie progettuali, intervenendo anche sui caratteri spaziali e formali del costruito. Pertanto si tratteranno due diversi approcci nelle architetture interattive, uno scenario-based e un altro generativo, capaci di stabilire i confini fisici della relazione tra architettura e informazioni. Jade Eco Park, Translated Geometries e One Ocean Pavilion offrono una diversa chiave di lettura del rapporto tra uomo, edificio e ambiente circostante, in una relazione meta-testuale tra fisico e virtuale che richiama l'architettura contemporanea a una riflessione sulle potenzialità di questo fenomeno.

One determining characteristic of contemporary sociopolitical systems is their power over increasingly large and diverse populations. This raises questions about power relations between heterogeneous individuals and increasingly dominant and homogenizing system objectives. This article crosses epistemic boundaries by integrating computer engineering and a historicalphilosophical approach making the general organization of individuals within large-scale systems and corresponding individual homogenization intelligible. From a versatile archeological-genealogical perspective, an analysis of computer and social architectures is conducted that reinterprets Foucault’s disciplines and political anatomy to establish the notion of politics for a purely technical system. This permits an understanding of system organization as modern technology with application to technical and social systems alike. Connecting to Heidegger’s notions of the enframing (Gestell) and a more primal truth (anfänglic...

La globalización social y económica ha producido una nueva serie de problemas complejos cuyo riesgo no es cuantificable. Tomar decisiones en estos contextos es un problema ético que supera los procedimientos clásicos basados en el cálculo probabilístico. Se requieren nuevas maneras de definir los riesgos y la aplicación de procesos de análisis complementarios, como el principio de precaución. Ello implica aceptar el carácter irreductible de la complejidad y los problemas que genera, y optar por un diálogo inclusivo en el que la ética sea el elemento clave sobre el que se fundamente una nueva racionalidad capaz de imaginar nuevas formas de racionalidad científica y nuevos procedimientos de evaluación y decisión.

The complex environments of today’s markets makes managing organizations in complexity and turbulence a concern for senior managers, and necessitate developing a dynamic strategic framework to cope with complexity in managing organizations. This paper demonstrates a study that was conducted to value a structured set of management principles and sub-elements by a panel of experts to develop a conceptual framework to manage in complex and very high dynamic environments. The panel consisted of 22 senior level managers of grade “A” companies in the construction industry in Qatar State using a two-round Delphi technique. The study developed two frameworks. The first framework is for managing complexity in the construction sector. The second one is the primary general framework, which forms a basis for a generalized framework for other industries. This study participates in developing valuable management practices in complex environments to tackle uncertainty, unpredictability, disorder, rapid changes and non-linearity, which would be of great help for leaders, senior managers and practitioners who operate in complex environments.

Purpose: This article presents a cognitive framework to study dynamic/adaptive aspects of a collection of popular fit measures used in organisation research, in an attempt to highlight what there is to be gained.

Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses a distributed e-cognition (DEC) framework to examine the current organisational literature of fit measures.

Findings: This paper highlights that most measures have a rather narrow focus and do not address dynamic/adaptive aspects in complex social systems (e.g., organisations). To both provide a way to integrate fit measures and to cover the cognition gap in this literature, this article highlights the need for a more sophisticated measure.

Originality: This paper provides a novel approach to examining organizational fit literature through a distributed (e)-cognitive framework.

In this article we demonstrate why mathematical models of the World System evolution are so important for the world-systems research, in general, and for the issue of systemic boundaries in particular. The point is that those mathematical models demonstrate in a rather convincing way that in order that a certain set of human societies would demonstrate systemic qualities (and – thus – could be described with a single mathematical model), it is sufficient that just one condition is observed – it is necessary that the technological innovations made in one society of a system could diffuse within a millennium throughout all the other societies of the system. As soon as this condition is satisfied , the respective set of human societies can be treated as a single system (and – what is important – can be described with a single mathematical model), and we do not know any better designation for such a system than the 'world-system'. This, of course suggests rather specific criteria for the world-systemic boundaries. In this article we will attempt to demonstrate why mathematical models of the World System evolution are so important for the world-systems research in general, and for the issue of systemic boundaries in particular. We will try to show that these models suggest a novel approach to the world-systems research allowing perceiving the issue of the systemic boundaries in a new light.

The Internet threats can affect anyone and even cause tremendous financial damage to organizations or even countries, while the mitigation of such threats can be very difficult, considering the highly sophisticated nature of attacks that can be created not necessarily by regular hackers for profitability purposes, but by countries for satisfaction of national interests. A cyber-attack can be initiated against critical entities, which could have a Cascadian effect on a variety of its internal and external elements, due to the complexity of such entities and their interconnectivity. The constantly emerging threats result in an inability to produce a universal security solution. The Complex Adaptive systems can help to better identify the relationships between different systems in highly complex infrastructures, while the Game Theory can help to dig into the essence of relationships with and motives of potential attackers, in order to better understand how to protect against them and to address the security more efficiently.

, the Japanese government declared a state of emergency due to the rapid spread of COVID-19. As a result, Japanese universities in the greater Tokyo area decided that all courses would be held online for the foreseeable future. This sudden shift to remote education posed a number of technical and logistical challenges in teaching and classroom management. Both teachers and students struggled to meet the demands of online classes. Under such unprecedented circumstances, leadership functions became critical within the normative hierarchical leaderfollower dynamics of the Japanese education system (Aubrey et al., 2015; Lochland, 2012; Schenck, 2015). The global pandemic crisis highlighted disparities among stakeholder values and circumstances, a quintessentially adaptive challenge. The task of leadership was to close the values gap by forming a unified community for action, requiring ownership that is often best produced by those leading without authority (Heifetz & Linsky, 2017) and representing novel territory for Japanese leaders. One of the key characteristics of Japanese organizations is that they prioritize the harmony of the group over individual expression. Members will conform to the norms and values of a group, making concessions to maintain harmony (Takano & Sogon, 2008). Hierarchy, homogeneity, and an emphasis on group needs over those of individuals are entrenched in Japanese organizational culture and practices, reflected in day-today operations (Sakikawa, 2012; Shani, 2019). When faced with adverse circumstances, members' strong commitment to the group's collective identity helps them unify around a need for action (Heifetz & Linsky, 2017). This collective awareness serves to activate the group's collective intelligence, which can then lead to adaptive and collaborative leadership practices (Aras & Ingley, 2017). This is what occurred during the global pandemic crisis. Collective intelligence emphasizes collaboration, collective effort, and consensus in decision-making (Malone & Bernstein, 2015). When these

The basic presumptions of the sciences, as we have known them, are undergoing transformational changes. The situation today is similar to that which existed in the 17th century. At that time the premises of science presented by Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon and René Descartes replaced the Ptolemaic paradigm that had reigned in science until then. We are once more in the throes of a revolution in science. Today we are beginning to realise that currently held notions and principles of science do reflect reality, but only part of reality - the ordered, linear, isolatable, predictable, controllable side of reality.

The New Sciences, Chaos- and Complexity Theories have enlightened us to the fact that there are also other aspects of the world in which non-linearity, interactiveness, chaos, complexity, unpredictability and uncertainty are natural, inevitable elements of this universe. We are moving to a scientific world-view of systems that look like whirlpools through which matter, energy and information flow. The form of these systems is created by the follow-through and interaction of their elements. The change is from dealing mainly with a world of simple systems that are seen as linear, closed and predictable, that can be planned and controlled. We are beginning to see much of the world as complex systems that are non-linear, interactive and open. Their behaviour often cannot be predicted, and therefore cannot be planned for and controlled in the long term, and this has tremedous implications for leaders in the future, both in a personal capacity as well as in an organisational sense.

This reports essentially asserts that the traditional forms of leadership and organisational behaviour, even though they were appropriate for their times, are inadequate to cope with the challenges that future leaders and organisations will face. It thus sets out some guiding principles and discusses environments, based predominantly on the precepts of New Science, Chaos Theory and Complexy Theory, rather than that of traditional models, that need to be embraced by leaders within their organisations.

Duality is a philosophical system that is regaining a second life through sciences such as quantum physics and the complexity sciences. These last years, business strategy too has become oriented again towards duality, mainly in the form of order and chaos. The competing on the edge strategy from Brown and Eisenhardt is an example of such a strategy which is trying to make the leap from a monistic to a dualistic worldview. It will be argued that this leap is a failure, demonstrating how difficult it is to change our way of thinking and perceiving. The second strategy that will be reviewed is from Osono et al. who propose a model of the Toyota strategy based on contradiction. We will see that Brown and Eisenhardt are stuck in the approach of the dilemma with regard to dualism, whilst the Toyota Way, although having its own problems, may be well underway to achieve true complexity through the sense-making of paradox.

There is growing dissatisfaction with the traditional approach to the evolution of complex societies, which treated it principally as a sequence of transformations toward political centralization driven by the construction of increasingly vertical hierarchies by a powerful elite. In Mesoamerica the evidence is more consistent with a variety of alternative pathways to social complexity, and these are fruitfully approached from theoretical perspectives based on social heterarchy (Crumley 2003), collective action (Fargher et al. 2011), and, so I will suggest, ritual anti-structure (Turner 1969).

A new efficient modified back propagation algorithm with adaptive learning rate is proposed to increase the convergence speed and to minimize the error. The method eliminates initial fixing of learning rate through trial and error and replaces by adaptive learning rate. In each iteration, adaptive learning rate for output and hidden layer are determined by calculating differential linear and nonlinear errors of output layer and hidden layer separately. In this method, each layer has different learning rate in each iteration. The performance of the proposed algorithm is verified by the simulation results.

This study reviews 30 representative contributions to the software process improvement (SPI) lit-erature, first assessing history, broad themes, and research methods, then categorizing each article by its stated or implied organizational paradigm. In addition to the traditional rational, natural, and open systems views, the emerging paradigm of complex adaptive systems from chaos theory is ap-plied. Based on this perspective, the factors influencing SPI success and failure are grouped, ana-lyzed, and summarized by the organizational paradigms from which they were observed. Factors are then subcategorized through affinity analysis into those related to management, organizations, processes, projects, teams, and users. The overall purpose of this classification scheme is to deter-mine whether factors found to influence success and failure of SPI vary by the researcher's organi-zational paradigm. Significant differences are found between the factors emphasized by researchers applying different paradigms. Factors vary by distribution among the subcategories and by content within the subcategories. Implications for practioners and researchers include the necessity of un-derstanding the operative organizational paradigm before undertaking SPI or SPI research.

Keywords: Software Process Improvement, Research Methods, Organizational Paradigms, Complex Adaptive Systems

Context: The essay considers economics as a psychological phenomenon with the characteristics of a complex dynamic system. It is an initial and somewhat playful exploration, not a mathematical paper on systems theory. The original context was a discussion group background paper which evolved away from its origins. The starting proposal adopted (for argument’s sake) was that “the most economically successful societies have always depended upon a high level of government collusion with commerce and industry, if not control. This argument is a way of saying that the “invisible hand” of the market is not enough to maintain an efficient market, at least beyond village level. There has to be an independent umpire, or forced control (dictator, mafia … )”. It became clear that the government-industry collusion issue was really a surface gloss on a much more complicated reality.

That ‘something’ referred to is managing. Disappointed? Don’t be. This is a smorgasbord for the interdisciplinarian. Managing is what I guess you think it is: a process of bringing people, tools, and raw material together to achieve a goal. For me, it’s a process of creating, transforming, and even destroying meaning, which is driven by emotions. It is emotioning, a languaging, conversing and learning process in one neat package. But why is managing fractalicious.?

A fractal, famous in chaos theory and Mandelbrot sets, is a set of relationships, a pattern that repeats within itself. Managing generates a fractal-like pattern that occurs at the levels of an individual, a team, an organisation, a society. It also generates a pattern in our brain/nervous system in what anthropologists and sports coaches call rehearsal. Managing is fractalicious because everybody manages, every day, every minute. Everybody thinks about managing all the time. What we do together is co-ordinate our managing. We make decisions, set goals, make plans and put them into action, monitor performance, learn from the experience, and do it again. But doesn’t this describe crafting too? We manage to achieve ambitions, we manage to disrupt meetings, we manage to make tools to make other tools. Managing is, simultaneously, also a process of building, of changing, of conserving. Managing is intimately tied to results. Results flow—they are generated continuously. Some results become more significant than others, some of those become symbolic. Managing is the process by which meaning is given to symbols, and through which meaning evolves. I would like to share my exploration of managing with the conference

This paper illustrates how the payoff matrices of the single group Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD) and the Intergroup Prisoner’s Dilemma (IPD) differentially reinforce cooperation when participants care about relative performance. Examples of particular payoff patterns and thought experiments using a computational simulation demonstrate that withholding cooperation is not always the dominant strategy in the IPD. In the intergroup structure, three conditions differentially reinforce cooperation. When competing groups have equal numbers of cooperators, withholding cooperation is always the dominant strategy just as in the single group structure. In contrast, when one group has more cooperators than the other group, cooperation by its members can dominate withholding cooperation by members of the other group. Thus, the relative advantage of one group over another increases the payoff for cooperation in some configurations of the IPD over the payoff in the PD. Relative payoff is thus an untheorized variable motivating cooperation in the IPD.

This paper illustrates how the payoff matrices of the single group Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD) and the Intergroup Prisoner’s Dilemma (IPD) differentially reinforce cooperation when participants care about relative performance. Examples of particular payoff patterns and thought experiments using a computational simulation demonstrate that withholding cooperation is not always the dominant strategy in the IPD. In the intergroup structure, three conditions differentially reinforce cooperation. When competing groups have equal numbers of cooperators, withholding cooperation is always the dominant strategy just as in the single group structure. In contrast, when one group has more cooperators than the other group, cooperation by its members can dominate withholding cooperation by members of the other group. Thus, the relative advantage of one group over another increases the payoff for cooperation in some configurations of the IPD over the payoff in the PD. Relative payoff is thus an untheor...

In a world where the market, customer profiles and demands change constantly and the events in the global marketplace are unpredictable, it becomes increasingly difficult for an enterprise to sustain its competitive advantage. Under these conditions of uncertainty, complexity and constant change, it becomes very important for an enterprise to be able to learn from its experience and to adapt its behavior in order to constantly outperform its competitors. An enterprise that has these characteristics is a complex adaptive enterprise. The interrelationships between resources in a complex adaptive enterprise and its global behavior within the marketplace can be numerous and mostly hidden, and can affect many different resources throughout the enterprise. One of the main challenges of the modern enterprise is to understand this complex web of interrelationships and to integrate this understanding into its business processes and strategies in such a way that it can sustain its competitive advantage.

Public systems are facing increasingly complex challenges such as poverty and terrorism. In this paper, we seek to demonstrate the theoretical as well as practical value of complexity science, by investigating how key characteristics of a Complex Adaptive System (CAS) work out in practice within the intelligence organization of the ongoing nation-building mission in Mali (MINUSMA). Our main finding is that the learning properties of the CAS suffer when its structural properties are not sufficiently developed. In MINUSMA, major improvements can especially be made in (re)developing the minimum specs-in which strategic and operational demands, ideally, converge.

Our planet faces many impending crises as a consequence of growing populations and rising affluence. Governmental bodies at any level seem unable to provide the leadership to mitigate these. It seems to be up to those in the community who are most directly affected to take the leadership. Yet, without access to knowledge and understanding, individuals and communities are powerless against administrative juggernauts that are all too often beholden to a few powerful individuals rather than the communities they are supposed to represent and support. However, the Internet and newly invented social and cloud computing technologies provide individuals with fingertip access to humanity's knowledge base; tools for extracting, evaluating, and sharing knowledge that is relevant to local needs; as well as tools for socially coordinating that action to promote and guide action. This paper reviews some of these tools and discusses how they can be applied for good or ill.

This is a presentation for a Health Foundation Webinar on complex systems approaches in public health (www.health.org.uk) on 2nd November 2017.  It seeks to address how complex systems approaches can be applied to public health challenges, and looks at the Hertfordshire experience

Acknowledgements 2 Modularity, degeneracy, redundancy • Systems and perspectives • Function mappings, emergence and complexity (modularity, degeneracy) • Architectural constraints and function realisation (interfaces, redundant architectures, redundancy with modular and degenerate architectures) • Characterising complex systems in terms of MDR 3 Systems and perspectives Systems and perspectives 5 Systems and perspectives 6 Systems and perspectives 7 m 1 Systems and perspectives 8 = Systems and perspectives 9 ≠ Systems and perspectives 10

PurposeThis article presents a cognitive framework to study dynamic/adaptive aspects of a collection of popular fit measures used in organisation research, in an attempt to highlight what there is to be gained.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a distributed e-cognition (DEC) framework to examine the current organisational literature of fit measures.FindingsThis paper highlights that most measures have a rather narrow focus and do not address dynamic/adaptive aspects in complex social systems (e.g. organisations). To both provide a way to integrate fit measures and cover the cognition gap in this literature, this article highlights the need for a more sophisticated measure.Originality/valueThis paper provides a novel approach to examining organisational fit literature through a distributed (e)-cognitive framework.