The Impact of Complex Adaptive Systems
The Impact of Complex Adaptive Systems
As a teenager beginning a new school, you likely searched for other students who were similar to you to
befriend. You may have looked for students with similar backgrounds, interests, hobbies, and academic
abilities. It is likely that no one explicitly told you to do this but that you did it naturally. Others did likewise,
and groups began to form. As your group began to interact with other groups, rules governing these
relationships may also have formed. Again, these relationships were likely not instituted by anyone in
formal authority but passed informally among members and between groups. However, some members
may have deviated from these informal relationship rules. If the influence of these individuals were strong
enough, they could permanently alter the relationships within and between groups.
Those who apply complexity theories suggest that organizations and even entire industries develop in
much the same way as individuals or entire organizations pursue individual goals, react to the actions of
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others, and form relationships. Scholar-practitioners must ask themselves what implications these
theories have for those attempting to develop strategy for modern organizations.
To prepare, review this Week�s Learning Resources on complexity theory. Consider the potential impact
of a complex adaptive system for the organization you chose for your SSP.
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The Impact of Complex Adaptive Systems
Colleague One
In response to the post made by the first colleague, Geraldine, I agree with him that each
and every organization has strategic goals, which are executed through strategic thinking.
Nonetheless, there arises the need to specify that modern organizations have fostered the
application of complex adaptive systems by reinforcing their operations. Given the definition of
the term Complex Adaptive Systems, which Geraldine notes as being the process of classifying
complex living machines and innovations so as to stimulate growth in organizations, the example
given on the PC industry adds a different perspective to the argument. This is because even
though the industry was shaped by the existence of competitors who impacted on the micro
environment through innovations, research and development, it is still appreciated that the
slotting in of strategic managers, market researchers and public relation officers facilitated the
integration of CAS (Hill & Brown, 2007). In the end, the complexity of the relationship between
Apple, IBM and other companies led to a transformation of the industry where currently,
companies that were previously specialized in software programming such as Microsoft have
ventured into hardware production through mergers and takeovers while hardware producing
companies such as IBM have vertically integrated into software programming.
From this example, the impact of CAS is seen as having a neutralizing impact on the
growth of the PC industry as all the companies have vertically integrated. This critique moves
the argument closer to answering the questions posed by Geraldine asking whether organizations
have a way of measuring the results accrued from an interaction of the adaptive systems. The
answer to this question is yes. This is because the inauguration of various departments into
modern organizations facilitate the identification of key parameters that cause an impact on the
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adaptive systems (Solvit, 2012). Additionally, the leadership perspective has increased thus
necessitating the creation of specific departments to monitor the efficiency of the system. As a
result, the next big thing for PC is further vertical integration where companies will be self-
sufficient by creating their own software and hardware respectively (Hobbs & Scheepers, 2010).
The consumer are very adaptive because the increased competition courtesy of CAS has led to
more sophisticated innovations at a relatively low cost. I would advise Apple, Microsoft and
IBM to invest more in research and development so as to create more user friendly PCs.
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References
Hill, A. & Brown, S. (2007). Strategic profiling: a visual representation of internal strategic fit in
service organizations. International Journal of Operations and Production Management,
27(12), 1333-1361.
Hobbs, G. & Scheepers, R. (2010). Agility in Information Systems: Enabling Capabilities for the
IT Function. Pacific Asia Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 2 (4).
Solvit, S. (2012). Dimensions of War: Understanding War as a Complex Adaptive System. Paris,
France: L’Harmattan Press.
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Colleague Two
The second colleague (Quintin) acknowledges that the complex adaptive system theory
defines the process of attaining order in complex markets and social systems. I support the
definition of the theory since it seconds the ideas by Alcock, Burgess & Hasan (2013), who
identified that CAS is pertinent in integrating complex business ideas. A critique of this note is
that the author identifies more with many disciplines that skip the main logic behind the
application of the theory in modern business scenarios. In spite of the scattered ideas, the author
acknowledges that CAS is likely to result into distributed intelligence. By so doing, the systems
attain order by interacting with the agents and this results into unintended outcome. In my
opinion, which is seconded by Bronder and Pritzi, (2012) the central controller guides the
reaction of the various stakeholders thus their outcome becomes focused towards using the
integrated system to maximize on profitability and returns realized from a business. The process
of gaining from applying the CAS theory is advanced by the institution of a learning
organization where the employees are motivated into learning new skills that will help in shaping
the company into adapting to the new systems. An example of this complex adaptations is seen
in the technological advancement of medical equipment and machinery which rises the need for
hospitals to create learning environments where their medics can interact with the macro
environment through social networks and communication (Holland, 2006). By so doing, a
cohesive system is created by borrowing knowledge from other better performing systems.
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References
Alcock, C., Burgess, L., & Hasan, H. (2013). Information systems for the social well-being of
senior Australians in building sustainable information systems (pp. 89-100). New York:
Springer Press.
Bronder, C. & Pritzi, R. (2012). Developing Strategic Alliances: A Conceptual Framework for
Successful Co-operation. European Management Journal, 10 (4), pp. 412-421.
Holland, H. (2006). Studying Complex Adaptive Systems. Journal of Systems Science and
Complexity, 19 (1), 1-8.
