Episode 217: Complexity & Organizations w/ Chris Mowles
Mar 13, 2025
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Chris Mowles, a Professor of Complexity and Management at Hertfordshire Business School, dives into the intricate world of organizational complexity. He explains why complexity is increasingly relevant today and how consultants grapple with unpredictable challenges. Mowles critiques individualism and promotes a nuanced understanding of power dynamics in management. The conversation also highlights the significance of adaptability in complex environments, interspersed with personal reflections on jazz aesthetics and modern television narratives.
The growing recognition of complexity in business indicates a shift away from linear models towards embracing organizational unpredictability.
Consultants often struggle with providing clear solutions to complex organizational challenges, reflecting tension between real-world complexity and their goal-driven methods.
Exploring complexity across disciplines is crucial for understanding societal issues, as single perspectives risk oversimplifying the intricate nature of social dynamics.
Deep dives
The Rise of Complexity in Business Discussions
The notion of complexity is becoming increasingly prominent in discussions about business and management. Specialists are now plentiful, indicating a growing recognition that the world operates beyond simple linear models, reflecting real-world unpredictability. However, the risk lies in over-simplifying complexity into tools and frameworks, leading to misguided assumptions about its benefits. This trend illustrates both progress in understanding and a challenge in fully grasping the nuances of complexity in practical applications.
The Dilemma of Consulting Practices
Consultants often face the challenge of providing tangible solutions to complex problems in a world that resists easy categorization. Their role often requires them to offer guarantees of improvement, leading to a conflict with the inherent unpredictability of organizational dynamics. Academic perspectives emphasize the privilege of exploring complex theories without the constraints of needing immediate results, allowing for a deeper understanding of organizational intricacies. This distinction highlights the gap between consultancy's goal-driven approaches and academic explorations of complexity.
The Desire for Predictability in Human Experience
The yearning for predictability reflects a deep-rooted cultural desire to stabilize the unpredictability of life and society. Philosophical explorations suggest that this wish stems from historical attempts to apply rationality, often through mathematical approaches, to understand and mitigate human vulnerability. This quest for control can lead to the oversimplification of complex social interactions, reducing the rich tapestry of human experience to mere data points. Philosophies from both East and West reveal contrasting views on this quest, emphasizing the acceptance of life's inherent uncertainties.
Understanding Paradoxes in Complexity
Complexity sciences reveal that paradoxes are inherent in human thought and social dynamics, demonstrating dualities such as involvement and detachment. The interconnectedness of individual actions and societal structures exemplifies how individuals shape their environments while being shaped by them in return. This interplay challenges the assumption that society can be viewed strictly as an aggregate of individual actions, suggesting a more nuanced understanding of social formations. The recognition of this complexity allows for a richer exploration of social interactions and the potential unpredictability of societal change.
The Interconnection of Knowledge and Disciplines
Cross-disciplinary exploration highlights the importance of integrating insights from various fields to understand complex societal issues. Applying knowledge from the natural sciences to social phenomena requires careful justification, contrasting the ease with which conventional business models are accepted. Philosophers argue for acknowledging the entangled nature of truth and practice, advocating for a broader perspective beyond a single disciplinary lens. Engaging deeply with multiple domains enriches understanding and fosters a more holistic approach to complexity in society.
Philip welcomes Chris Mowles, author of Complexity: A Key Idea for Business and Society and editor of Complexity and Organizations to the show. In their conversation, they trace the origins of complexity as a discipline, explain why “complexity is having a moment’ and what does it mean to apply it our organized world.
The Drop – The segment of the show where Philip and his guest share tasty morsels of intellectual goodness and creative musings.
