Mgt 655 Organization Systems & Complexity Theory Seminar 

Week

Topics

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS & ASSIGNMENTS

Book Readings & Handouts

After week 1, Due to discuss on the date listed below. NEVER READ MORE THAN 2 ITEMS A WEEK - YOU PICK THEM:

0

Jan 19 Intro; brief overview of class & syllabus

What are the Old Paradigm Systems Theories? Naïve OT, General Systems Theory (GST), & Language schools by Boje (2004)

Assignment 1 begins - Start to build a scrapbook of the 'systemicity-complexity' of Las Cruces Art Scene. Scrapbooking methodology became Yue Cai's (2006) Dissertation when she was a student at this course. She now is a strategy professor.

Guest is Cindi Fargo of Las Cruces Main Steet

Confernce call to Ken Baskin about COMPLEXITY AND STORIED SPACES to Ken Baskin See Bio

Introduction - Day ONE

Each student will contact a systems/complexity researcher for class interview (e.g. Cai, Gardner, Landrum, Baskin, Smith, Kevin Dooley; Ken Baskin; & others TBA).

What's on your 2 Systems/Complexity CDs?

What is on the CT Ethics CD?

Read Baskin's 2008 Storied Spaces Article, published in Emergence & Complexity Journal CLICK HERE for pdf

Read STO intro & ch 1; CTE Intro (see abbreviations below in BOOKS)

For more info on scrapbook method, visit Management Office and see

NEVER READ MORE THAN 2 ITEMS A WEEK - YOU PICK THEM, BUT IF YOU DO NOT KNOW 2 YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE BEST GRADES IN CLASS

1

Jan 26 - Beyond Naive Systems Theory to Holographic Complexity Theory & Ethics

NOTE: Tonight at 6:30 there is a special invitation to go to Las Cruces Downtown MainStreet office to meet with Cindi Fargo (good option for 655 project)

SKYPE Interview call to Yue Cai about her Motorola dissertation.

Class discussion questions:

What is the CT Ethics of Systems & Complexity Thinking?

What is naive about the Bertallanffy GST?

Lecture 1 - levels (I put these short lectures on line) but if the discussion is good I don't talk about them

I would like as many class members as possible to participate in the Sept 8, 15, and 22 organizational complexity convention I am organizing. We may have enough of you to switch the next 3 meetings to Mon instead of Wed - this way you can each be facilitators in the events - please study http://talkingstick.info (see task forces)

Cai, Yue. 2006. Story Strategy Dialogisms at Motorola Corporation. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Management Department. New Mexico State University.

Read for today: Books, Handouts or from CDs:

GST:  von Bertalanffy GST readings Ch 6 open system

Boulding (hierarchic levels)

Pondy (Beyond Open Systems Theory), Cooper,

Books: STO 1, CTE foreword & Intro

2

Feb 2 Beyond Naive Systems Theory to Holographic complexity models

or we may meet Sep 8

Assignment 1 SCRAPBOOK Due tonight (note if we meet sept 8, 15 & 22 for the Convention, then we we will hold this assignment until Sept 30

What is the The Naïve OT School of Systems Theory?

Lecture 2 - Critique of K&K, Scott, Senge - this might be helpful to you

Please use time to build preliminary (not final) scrapbook for local Las Cruces organization you intend to study this term

Get to know Course Model: old version of Figure 1 & the systemicity-model in STO Ch 1, i.e.

Be able to discuss 3 properties of complexity by Edgar Morin:

1. dialogical
2. hologrammatic
3. recursivity.

More of The Naïve OT School of Systems Theory: Katz & Kahn (1966); Scott (1998); Senge (1990)

Beginning of Story Theory work:

REQUIRED: STO Chap 1 From Systems Theory to Complexity

Benjamin (The Storyteller, 1936) - read handout next week and be able to discuss them fluently

Boje, D. M. 2006. Breaking out of Narrative's Prison: Improper Story in Storytelling Organization. Storytelling, Self, Society: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Storytelling Studies. Vol 2 (2): 28-49. Working paper on line CLICK here

Morin, Edgar. 2008. On Complexity (Advances in Systems Theory, Complexity, and the Human Sciences). NJ: Hampton Press.

REMINDER:NEVER READ MORE THAN 2 ITEMS A WEEK - YOU PICK THEM

3

Feb 9 The Social Construction School or we may meet Sep 15

STO Intro & Read Weick Sensemaking book excerpt handout & tie to SO Intro

SKYPE Call with Carolyn L. Gardner - Kutztown University

VISIT from our own William L. Smith -New Mexico State University

Make sure to pick out article to talk on for next week.

Lecture 3 - Organic is Unnatured

Note: We will pick and choose from following:

Boje, D. M. 1991. "The storytelling organization: A study of storytelling performance in an office supply firm." Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 36: pp.106-126. Press here

Boje, D. M.; Gardner, Carolyn L. & Smith, William L. (2006. (Mis)Using Numbers in the Enron Story Organizational Research Methods Journal, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 456-474. See abstract

Maruyama – Venn Diagrams and related systems theory; Volosinov/Bakhtin pp 20-25 language critique of social psych;  Pondy & Boje (1980); Maruyama’s papers on language and systems theory.  Tye (2003)

4

Feb 16 GST

Assignment 2 CRITIQUE USING CT Due tonight Read & use in critique SO 2, NM 1 & 2

Your Conference Paper Abstract is due today (part of Assignment 3)

Lecture 4 - Gertrude Stein & Systemicity read her 1935 University of Chicago lecture #3 on Narrative (with Boje's answers to deconstructing von Bertalanffy)

Benjamin, Walter (1936) Storytelling chapter from Illuminations book.

The class will pick out its own readings - from the CD's, from the Syllabus introduction, or one from their own interest area.

5

Feb 23 Pondy & Language School

CONFERENCE CALL (in class) to Stew Leonard Web site(not confirmed).

REQUIRED STO 1 STO 2

Read NM 5

Boje, D. M. 2005a. Antenarrative in management research. Sage Dictionary, forthcoming. Click here

Overview of types of Open systems; beyond open systems

Lecture 3B - Ethics & Academy of Management

Review: Pondy & Mitroff (1979) Beyond Open Systems Theory; Pondy (1976) Leadership as a Language Game; Boje 1995 Disney article; Cooper (1989) critique of Pondy; Lowe & Carr 2002 – Are language & systems theory incommensurable? Emery, M's open says theory alive and well (see folder 6)

NEVER READ MORE THAN 2 ITEMS A WEEK - YOU PICK THEM

6

Mar 2 Emery & Contextualism

Class visit or SKYPE interview with Rosanna Alvarez

REQUIRED (2 of these 3): STO 4 Polyphonic

Lecture 5 - Brief History of STS (Socio-Technical System) theory

Lecture 6 - Using Contextualism to Get Beyond OST of the Emerys

Depending on your interest

STO 3 - Collective Memory

NM 3 What is Abduction? Good time to integrate Stein with Emery (outside & inside) and Bakhtin's Philosophy of the Act

and STO 9 (Dialog & Debate)

Emery & Trist (1966); Pepper (1942) four part model (formist, mechanistic, organic, contextualist). See model ; Boje 1999

We will try to arrange Rosanna Alvarez to be our guest.

Visit Management Office or Library & See Copy:

Alvarez, Rosanna C. 1999. Change in type IV environments : a case study in public natural resources management. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Management Dept, NMSU.

7

Mar 9 Boulding Hierarchy

REQUIRED: STO 5 Stylistic STO 6 Chronotopic

Boje, D. M. 2005b. Dialogism in management research. Sage Dictionary, forthcoming. Click here

The Skeleton of Science, Boulding 1956; On Purposeful Systems, Ackoff & Emery 1972; Montouri & Purser 1996;  –

8

Mar 16 Bakhtin & language School

CONFERENCE CALL (in class)

Steve King (consultant) SKYPE call - Steve is expert in complexity and dialogical aspects sking@signalmg.com

REQUIRED: STO 7 Architectonic

Boje's intro to Ethics in CT book (get the book at Amazon)

Boje, D. M.; E. Enríquez; M. T. González; & E. Macías. 2005. Architectonics of McDonald’s Cohabitation with Wal-Mart: An Exploratory study of Ethnocentricity. Journal, Critical Perspectives on International Business. Click Here

Boje, D. M. & C. Rhodes. 2005a. The Leadership of Ronald McDonald: Double Narration and Stylistic Lines of Transformation. Leadership Quarterly journal Click here

Social Heteroglossia: centrifugal & centripetal language forces; Boje 2004 -  – Architectonics of Wal-Mart & McDonalds

Mar 22-26 SPRING BREAK

Mar 30 class on Living systems part I

 Complexity Workshop for 655 Students

Let's talk to Nancy Landrum by Skype

For fun, try

Complex System Term MAP (New England Complex Systems Institute)

See Doctoral Dissertation: Landrum, Nancy Ellen. 2000. Quantitative and qualitative examination of the dynamics of Nike and Reebok storytelling as strategy. Nancy Landrum is a tenured professor at University of Arkansas at Little Rock

9

Apr 6

Assignment 3 CONFERENCE TERM PAPER PROPOSAL Due Tonight - Please focus paper as an analysis of your field organization. Can have your own discipline slant but needs to be grounded in course readings.

CONFERENCE CALL (in class) to Kaylynn Twotrees www.ktwotrees.org http://2treesnotes.blogspot.com/

Try to put something Critical into your paper: Critical Theory Resource Guides Main page | CT | ct | CMS

Exploring Complexity, Nicolis & Prigogine, 1989; Self-regulation and Requisite Variety, Ashby, 1956; Principles of the Self-organizing System, Ashby, 1962; Redesigning the Future, Ackoff 1974; Autopoiesis: the organization of living systems, its characterization and a model

10

Apr 13 Social Construction

STO 8 Polypi

SKYPE CALL to Nancy Landrum and Carolyn Gardner - about macro issues of spiritual strategy

Berger & Luckmann – Social Construction of Reality; Schwandt review of social construction theory in Handbook Qualitative Research

11

Apr 20 Bakhtin and Chronotopicity

Assignment 4 Due Tonight; Be prepared to do 10 minute presentations, as you would at conference. Your draft of the paper will be sent to peer review. Each person in class reviews to - due by next class

The ten Chronotopes of Bakhtin

12

Apr 27 Living Systems part II

Peer reviews of the papers are due today.

STO 11 Living Story Method

Skype Conference call to Jo Tyler and Theodore Taptiklis

Can Living systems theory generate testable hypotheses? The Edge of Organization, Marion 1999;  Sciences of the Artificial, Simon 1981;  Complexity and system descriptions

Optional reading

STO 12 Socratic Symposium or perhaps

Introduction to Luhmann's Sociology of Communication Systems:
The Self-Organization of the Knowledge-Based Society

Dialogic approach to language - Bakhtin & Dialectic approach of/ Volosinov 1930/1973

13

May 4

Exam Week

Final Paper due (builds on 3 assignments; is done just for this course).

Literature Review must contrast System & Systemicity-Complexity theories --- FINAL Paper Due (40%)

ASSIGNMENT LISTING

(Note, other assignments may be designated by instructor)

Assignment 1 Develop a SCRAPBOOK of organization you propose to study for the term (15%) . Scrapbook should contain multiple styles of systemicity: web, drawing, brochures, report excerpts, photos, living stories, BME narratives, etc. Scrapbook can have sections such as 1 FRAMEWORKS, 2 MECHANISTIC, 3 CONTROL,4 OPEN, 5 ORGANIC, 6 IMAGE, 7 SYMBOL, 8 NETWORK, 9 TRANSCENDENTAL (Read STO ch 1). Be prepared to present your Scrapbook and a Critique of Naïve Systems Theory: Oral Critique of any Naïve systems theory. Prepare a 5 min presentation of your critique. You will need to learn to GET CRITICAL, so read NM ch 1 (Deconstruction).

Assignment 2 Critical paper on General System Theory. (15%) Based upon STO intro, ch 1-3, NM Ch 1, and several other readings from the CD or your own research, please address the following: Write a critique of General System Theory (von Bertallanffy) based (in part) on Boulding, as failure to go beyond level 3 (CONTROL, 1st cybernetics), and (in part) on Bakhtin's concepts of heteroglossia, unfinalizability, and unmergedness (i.e.. SYSTEMICITY versus monophonic system). Use CRITICAL THEORY in your criticism to unpack and deconstruct von Bertallanffy. Must use an actual analytic method such as deconstruction, feminist theory, or CRITICAL THEORY approach in your paper. Use APA style, plus section headings. You are not supposed to do description, you are to apply analytic method, and not do compare and contrast between this author and that author.

Assignment 3 Either submit a conference abstract/paper or Submit Critical paper on Boulding - 10 page paper (15%) – Topic: moving from hierarchical to holographic complexity models. Look at Boulding. A helpful intro to Boulding – John Martin 2003 http://systems.open.ac.uk/objects/resources/Boulding.doc Boje (2008, STO book) covers the 9 levels of Boulding's model in comparison to their revision by Pondy. 1 FRAMEWORKS, 2 MECHANISTIC, 3 CONTROL,4 OPEN, 5 ORGANIC, 6 IMAGE, 7 SYMBOL, 8 NETWORK, 9 TRANSCENDENTAL. Trace how this kind of hierarchic thinking is in system theory writing by Polanyi and by Pirsig. That will get you to C or B- level. For A level, look at hierarchic system -levels assumptions of current journal articles or books on the topic, and then how to move beyond that to holographic theory.

Assignment 4 CONFERENCE PAPER REHEARSAL – Present rough draft, including abstract, into, lit review, method, analyses, implications, conclusions, references sections. Paper is something that you will submit or did submit (this term) to conference (15%). Must be based on your field study and many of the course readings. You have 10 minutes only and no more than 10 to present, followed by 5 minutes of questions. See GUIDELINES - As part of the process of developing your paper, these rough drafts will be sent to peer review. Each student will write a 2 page review (single spaced) of a peer's paper. Total grade is for written draft, presentation, and 2 reviews.

Final paper (40%) - TURN YOUR CONFERENCE PAPER INTO A PUBLISHABLE-QUALITY FINAL PAPER. Instead of a final exam, you are required to write a final paper. USE APA STYLE. Structure it as a journal article with all the parts. Please identify an area of organization studies and complexity studies that has been described in the literature as problematic (from language or systems view). Provide literature review of problem aspect in terms of systems/complexity/systemicity theory concepts and provide a detailed description of how such a problem might be changed using systems theory of language. Please collect and analyze field observations of a local organization and its systemicity. The final paper will be presented by you for 15 minutes on last scheduled class day. See PUBLISHABLE GUIDELINES

READ ALL FINE PRINT

1.Absentee policy: Students with more than two absences will be dropped administratively.  Administrative drops will be processed by the October 15 deadline. Any absence (medical, athletic, or whatever other reason) requires a makeup paper (3 page minimum) based upon the assigned readings. Students who miss class, for any reason must do a make-up (see # 4)

2.  Academic and non-academic misconduct:  rules of classroom behavior: (1) no joint papers; (2) no disrespect to others students or professor (i.e. no blind emails); (3) no plagiarism of others’ work (please use proper references; you are responsible to fully understand what is plagiarism). Grade of “F” will appear for violation of rules 1 to 3. See Student Code of Conduct in the NMSU Student Handbook (www.nmsu.edu/~vpss/03-04handkbook.pdf).

3.  Multiple submissions:  Not legitimate to submit class work in this course that has been submitted in other courses.

4.  Make-up work on assignments or final paper:  assignments and final paper are due on due date; no exceptions. If you miss a class for some good reason, then you can write a make-up paper (3 to 5 pages) on the readings assigned. Call it distance ed. See absentee policy above.

5. NMSU and the individual members of its faculty, staff, and student body recognize their responsibility for protection of the rights and welfare of human subjects. Please read and understand the NMSU human subjects guidelines.

6. Disabilities/Employee Relations: Call the Director of Institutional Equity at 505.646.3635 with any questions you may have about NMSU's Non-Discrimination Policy & complaints of discrimination, including sexual harassment. Call the Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities at 505.646.6840 regarding student issues related to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and/or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. All medical information will be treated confidentially.

7.  Final Exams:  The dates for final exams are published in the NMSU course schedule each semester.  The date or time at which the final is offered may not be changed without the unanimous approval of students in the course as well as the approval of the department head.  No exam given during the week before Finals Week may be more than one class period in length.

8.  Incomplete Grades:  Under university policy, incompletes may be given only if a student has a passing grade at mid-semester (the last day to withdraw from a class) and is precluded from successful completion of the second half of the course by a documented illness, documented death, family crisis or other similar circumstances beyond the student's control.  An incomplete should not be given to avoid assigning a grade for marginal or failing work.  Requirements for removal of the I grade must be clearly stated on the I grade form and a copy of the form must be provided to the student.    It is up to the faculty member to determine whether an incomplete is appropriate.  Incompletes do not automatically convert to F's if the course is not completed.

9.  Record Retention:  Instructors or their departments are required to keep grade books or computer records of students' scores, the course grading record, attendance records (when absences are penalized), etc. for two years.  In cases involving grade appeals, records should be kept for at least two years after the appeal is adjudicated.

10. Students learn the ethics of story consulting practice and research. This includes following New Mexico State University IRB Human Subjects procedures. Please have anyone doing interviews fill out the following consent form. Please review any material with the client that you intend to appear in any king of conference paper or publication. Click here for IRB Approved Consent Form (Feb 2007; renewed Jan 08). Please have interviewees complete a Confidentiality Form (copy to be stored in Boje's office, BC 318; give copy to interviewee)