Complexity 3.0

A first step in understanding complexity is to acknowledge that different types and levels of complexity exist, each of which is to be dealt with in a specific way. The main categories of complexity are objective complexity and subjective complexity. In objective complexity, the non-linear, non-Newtonian causal density of social and economic reality is accepted, whereas conventional management and organization concepts assume dominantly linear causality. Subjective complexity results from observing and trying to deal with non-linear complex systems through the lens of concepts and models based on linear causality. This is so at the individual level, but it also results in institutional-induced complexity. Much experienced, subjective complexity results from a too-narrow and too-shallow cognitive base. One of the steps in order to be in control in a dynamic complex environment is to broaden and to deepen the individual and collective cognitive bases. Post-modern complexity helps us to connect the obsolete dualism of the management and organization concepts dating from the modern era to those of the contemporary era in which diversity is key. Complexity not only is a real phenomenon, it is also a stance to understand and reevaluate familiar concepts and models by making assumptions visible, that their codification is outside the field of business administration, making visible the limitations of the normative paradigms of neo-classical economic theory, and help to understand the provenance of concepts to avoid the emptiness of sign-type communication.