Friday, February 22, 2008
Professor Ralph Stacey - Glamorgan University 20th Feb 2008
You would not expect an academic from the Business School to be working to debunk most management theories and yet this is exactly the work that Professor Ralph Stacey, is engaged in. In addition, as one of the world’s leading exponents of complexity theory in relation to human action, Stacey has established an international reputation and acts as a magnet for top executives wanting to find out more about his approach to business.
He has devoted many years to addressing the theoretical foundations of how the complexity sciences are used to understand sources of stability and change in organizations. His work on complex responsive processes elucidates a view that shifts our understanding of complexity from adaptive systems to responsive processes of relating. He is the author of a number of books and articles which include Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics (Pitman, 5th edition, 2007), Complex Responsive Processes in Organisations (Routledge 2001) and Complexity and Group Processes: a radically social understanding of the individual (Brunner-Routledge 2003). He is co-author of Complexity and Management: Fad or radical challenge to systems thinking (Stacey, Griffin & Shaw, Routledge, October 2000). He is a co-editor of the book series Complexity and Emergence in Organizations as well as the series Complexity as the Experience of Organizing which includes Experiencing Emergence in Organizations: local interaction and the emergence of global pattern , and Complexity and the Experience of Managing in Public Sector Organizations co-edited with Douglas Griffin.