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How Organizations Engage with External Complexity: A Political Action Perspective

In: Understanding Organizations in Complex, Emergent and Uncertain Environments

Author

Listed:
  • John Child
  • Suzana B. Rodrigues

Abstract

Summary This chapter offers a new insight into how organizations engage with external complexity. It applies a political action perspective that draws attention to the hitherto neglected question of how the relative power organizational leaders enjoy within their environments is significant for the actions they can take on behalf of their organizations when faced with external complexity. It identifies cognitive and relational complexity as two dimensions of the environment with which organizations have to engage. It proposes three modes whereby organizations may engage with environmental complexity that are conditioned by an organization’s power within its environment. It also considers the intention associated with each mode, as well as the implications of these modes of engagement on how an organization can learn about its environment and for the use of rationality and intuition in its strategic decision-making. The closing discussion considers how this analysis integrates complexity and political action perspectives in a way that contributes to theoretical development and provides the basis for a dynamic political co-evolutionary approach.

Suggested Citation

  • John Child & Suzana B. Rodrigues, 2012. "How Organizations Engage with External Complexity: A Political Action Perspective," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Anabella Davila & Marta M. Elvira & Jacobo Ramirez & Laura Zapata-Cantu (ed.), Understanding Organizations in Complex, Emergent and Uncertain Environments, chapter 2, pages 13-44, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-02608-8_2
    DOI: 10.1057/9781137026088_2
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    Cited by:

    1. Kong, Qunxi & Guo, Rui & Wang, Yang & Sui, Xiuping & Zhou, Shimin, 2020. "Home-country environment and firms’ outward foreign direct investment decision: Evidence from Chinese firms," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 390-399.
    2. Thais González-Torres & José-Luis Rodríguez-Sánchez & Eva Pelechano-Barahona & Fernando E. García-Muiña, 2020. "A Systematic Review of Research on Sustainability in Mergers and Acquisitions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-18, January.

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