Theory of emergence: introducing a model-centred approach to applied social science research

If you have found this article useful and you think it is important that researchers across the world have access, please consider donating, to ensure that this valuable collection remains Open Access.

Prometheus is published by Pluto Journals, an Open Access publisher. This means that everyone has free and unlimited access to the full-text of all articles from our international collection of social science journals. Furthermore Pluto Journals authors don’t pay article processing charges (APCs).

Prometheus

Volume 33, Issue 3

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: found

Is Open Access

Theory of emergence: introducing a model-centred approach to applied social science research

research-article

Author(s): Omer Yezdani , Louis Sanzogni , Arthur Poropat

Publication date (Print): 1 September 2015

Journal: Prometheus

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Bookmark

Abstract

This paper explores a model-centred approach to augment the development and refinement of the theory of emergence. Its focus is on the relational process of leadership as an emergent event in complex human organisations. Emergence in complex organisations is a growing field of inquiry with many remaining research opportunities, yet a number of its central themes continue to be loosely connected to practical application and reliant on equivocal translations from root meaning. This paper offers a novel model of semantic conceptualisation of theory and phenomena with simulations to strengthen the theory–model–phenomenon link, building on the work of previous authors. Strengthening this link yields numerous applications, including making sense of complex organisational dynamics and supporting a wide range of theory-building research methods in applied social science and interdisciplinary research. The paper begins with a reflection on the main ideas of the theory of emergence, followed by discussion on prevalent model-centred approaches. A programme of semantic conceptualisation to expand real-world application of the theory of emergence is proposed.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Omer Yezdani:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7908-0979

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.2307/j50022063

Journal ID (jcode): prometheus

Title: Prometheus

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN: 0810-9028

ISSN: 1470-1030

Publication date (Print): 1 September 2015

Volume: 33

Issue: 3 ( doiID: 10.1080/prometheus.33.issue-3 )

Pages: 305-322

Affiliations

Department of International Business and Asian Studies, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

Article

Publisher ID: 08109028.2016.1144669

DOI: 10.1080/08109028.2016.1144669

SO-VID: 78727f80-7e87-420a-929f-04d2310a59c5

License:

All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Custom metadata

lang eng

ScienceOpen disciplines: Computer science,Arts,Social & Behavioral Sciences,Law,History,Economics

References

Ablowitz, R. (1939) ‘The theory of emergence’, Philosophy of Science, 6, 1, pp.1–16.
Anderson, P. (1999) ‘Complexity theory and organisation science’, Organisation Science, 10, 3, pp.216–32.
Blackler, F., Crump, N. and McDonald, S. (2000) ‘Organising processes in complex activity networks’, Organisation, 7, 2, pp.277–300.
Blumer, H. (1954) ‘What is wrong with social theory?‘, American Sociological Review, 19, 1, pp.3–10.
Brown, S. and Eisenhardt, K. (1997) ‘The art of continuous change: linking complexity theory and time-paced evolution in relentlessly shifting organisations’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 42, 1, pp.1–34.
Burnes, B. (2005) ‘Complexity theories and organisational change’, International Journal of Management Reviews, 7, 2, pp.73–90.
Burns, J. (1978) Leadership, Harper and Row, New York, NY.
Carte, T., Chidambaram, L. and Becker, A. (2006) ‘Emergent leadership in self-managed virtual teams: a longitudinal study of concentrated and shared leadership behaviours’, Group Decision and Negotiation, 15, 4, pp.323–43.
Checkland, P. (2000) ‘Soft systems methodology: a thirty year retrospective’, Systems Research and Behavioural Science, 17, S1, pp.S11–58.
Chiles, T., Meyer, A. and Hench, T. (2004) “Organisational emergence: the origin and transformation of Branson', Missouri's musical theatres', Organisation Science, 15, 5, pp.499–519.
Cohen, M., March, J. and Olsen, J. (1972) ‘A garbage can model of organisational choice’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 17, 1, pp.1–25.
Corbin, J. and Strauss, A. (2008) Basics of Qualitative Research, Sage, London.
Dewey, J. (1905) ‘The realism of pragmatism’, Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, 2, 12, pp.324–27.
Eisenhardt, K. (1989) ‘Building theories from case study research’, Academy of Management Review, 14, 4, pp.532–50.
Geertz, C. (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures, Basic Books, New York, NY.
Gioia, M. and Pitre, E. (1990) ‘Multiparadigm perspectives on theory building’, Academy of Management Review, 15, 4, pp.584–602.
Goldberg, J. and Markoczy, L. (2000) ‘Complex rhetoric and simple games’, Emergence: Complexity and Organisation, 2, 1, pp.72–100.
Goldstein, J. (1999) ‘Emergence as a construct: history and issues’, Emergence: Complexity and Organisation, 1, 1, pp.49–72.
Goldstein, J. (2008) ‘Conceptual foundations of complexity science: development and main constructs’ in Uhl-Bien, M. and Marion, R. (eds) Complexity Leadership Part I: Conceptual Foundations, Information Age Publishing, North Carolina, pp.17–48.
Goldstein, J. (2010) ‘Classic paper: The Theory of Emergence’, Emergence: Complexity and Organisation, 12, 3, pp.133–54.
Hannan, M. and Freeman, J. (1984) ‘Structural inertia and organisational change’, American Sociological Review, 49, 2, pp.149–64.
Hazy, J. (2006) ‘Measuring leadership effectiveness in complex socio-technical systems’, Emergence: Complexity and Organisation, 8, 3, pp.58–77.
Hazy, J. (2008) ‘Patterns of leadership: a case study of influence signalling in an entrepreneurial firm’ in Uhl-Bien, M. and Marion, R. (eds) Complexity Leadership Part I: Conceptual Foundations, Information Age Publishing, North Carolina, pp.379–415.
Huygens, M., Baden-Fuller, C., Van Den Bosch, F. and Volberda, H. (2001) ‘Co-evolution of firm capabilities and industry competition: investigating the music industry’, Organisation Studies, 22, 6, pp.971–1011.
Johns, N. and Lee-Ross, D. (1998) Research Methods in Service Industry Management, Cassell, London.
Juriado, R. and Niklas, G. (2007) ‘Emergent communities of practice in temporary inter-organisational partnerships’, Learning Organisation, 14, 1, pp.50–61.
Kaczmarski, K. M. and Cooperrider, D. L. (1997) ‘Constructionist leadership in the global relational age’, Organisation and Environment, 10, 3, pp.235–58.
Kauffman, S. (1993) The Origins of Order, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Kickul, J. and Neuman, G. (2000) ‘Emergent leadership behaviours: the function of personality and cognitive ability in determining teamwork performance and KSAs’, Journal of Business and Psychology, 15, 1, pp.27–51.
Lee, A. (1989) ‘Case studies as natural experiments’, Human Relations, 42, 2, pp.117–37.
Levinthal, D. and Warglien, M. (1999) ‘Landscape design: designing for local action in complex worlds’, Organisation Science, 10, 3, pp.342–57.
Lewin, K. (1952) ‘Group decision and social change’ in Swanson, G., Newcomb, T. and Hartley, E. (eds) Readings in Social Psychology, Holt, New York, NY, pp.459–73.
Lichtenstein, B. (2000) ‘Self-organised transitions: a pattern amid the chaos of transformative change’, Academy of Management Executive, 14, 4, pp.128–41.
Lichtenstein, B. and Plowman, D. (2009) ‘The leadership of emergence: a complex systems leadership theory of emergence at successive organisational levels’, Leadership Quarterly, 20, 4, pp.617–30.
Lichtenstein, B., Uhl-Bien, M., Marion, R., Seers, A., Orton, J. and Schreiber, C. (2006) ‘Complexity leadership theory: an interactive perspective on leading in complex adaptive systems’, Emergence: Complexity and Organisation, 8, 4, pp.2–12.
Lynham, S. (2000) ‘Theory building in the human resource development profession’, Human Resource Development Quarterly, 11, 2, pp.159–78.
Lynham, S. (2002) ‘The general method of applied theory building research’, Advances in Developing Human Resources, 4, 3, pp.221–41.
Macintosh, R. and Maclean, D. (1999) ‘Conditioned emergence: a dissipative structures approach to transformation’, Strategic Management Journal, 20, 4, pp.297–316.
March, J. (1991) ‘Exploration and exploitation in organisational learning’, Organisation Science, 2, 1, pp.71–87.
Marion, R. (2008) ‘Complexity theory for organisations and organisational leadership’ in Uhl-Bien, M. and Marion, R. (eds) Complexity Leadership Part I: Conceptual Foundations, Information Age Publishing, North Carolina, pp.1–16.
Marion, R. and Uhl-Bien, M. (2001) ‘Leadership in complex organisations’, Leadership Quarterly, 12, pp.389–418.
McKelvey, B. (1999) ‘Complexity theory in organisation science: seizing the promise or becoming a fad?‘, Emergence: Complexity and Organisation, 1, 1, pp.5–32.
McKelvey, B. (2008) ‘Emergent strategy via complexity leadership: using complexity science and adaptive tension to build distributed intelligence’ in Uhl-Bien, M. and Marion, R. (eds) Complexity Leadership Part I: Conceptual Foundations, Information Age Publishing, North Carolina, pp.225–68.
McKendrick, D., Jaffee, J., Carroll, G. and Khessina, O. (2003) ‘In the bud? Disk array producers as a (possibly) emergent organisational form’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 48, 1, pp.60–93.
Mintzberg, H. (1994) The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, Free Press, New York, NY.
Moldoveanu, M. and Bauer, R. (2004) ‘On the relationship between organisational complexity and organisational structuration’, Organisation Science, 15, 1, pp.98–118.
Morgan, G. (1998) Images of Organisation, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Oakland, CA.
Nicolis, G. and Prigogine, I. (1977) Self-Organisation in Non-equilibrium Systems: From Dissipative Structures to Order through Fluctuations, Wiley, New York, NY.
Osborn, R., Hunt, J. and Jauch, L. (2002) ‘Toward a contextual theory of leadership’, Leadership Quarterly, 13, 6, pp.797–837.
Pescosolido, A. (2002) ‘Emergent leaders as managers of group emotion’, Leadership Quarterly, 13, 5, pp.583–99.
Plowman, D., Baker, L., Beck, T., Kulkarni, M., Solanski, S. and Travis, D. (2007) ‘Radical change accidentally: the emergence and amplification of small change’, Academy of Management Journal, 50, 3, pp.515–43.
Plowman, D. and Duchon, D. (2008) ‘Dispelling the myths about leadership: from cybernetics to emergence’ in Uhl-Bien, M. and Marion, R. (eds) Complexity Leadership Part I: Conceptual Foundations, Information Age Publishing, North Carolina, pp.129–52.
Plowman, D., Solanski, S., Beck, T., Baker, L., Kulkarni, M. and Travis, D. (2007) ‘The role of leadership in emergent self-organisation’, Leadership Quarterly, 18, 4, pp.341–56.
Polanyi, M. (1968) ‘Life's irreducible structure’, Science, 160, 3834, pp.1308–12.
Prietula, M. and Carley, K. (1994) ‘Computational organisation theory: autonomous agents and emergent behaviour’, Journal of Organisational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 4, 1, pp.41–83.
Prigogine, I. (1997) The End of Certainty: Time, Chaos, and the New Laws of Nature, Free Press, New York, NY.
Prigogine, I. and Stengers, I. (1984) Order out of Chaos, Bantam, New York, NY.
Reynolds, C. (1987) ‘Flocks, herds and schools: a distributed behavioural model’, Computer Graphics, 21, 4, pp.25–34.
Schneider, M. and Somers, M. (2006) ‘Organisations as complex adaptive systems: implications of complexity theory for leadership research’, Leadership Quarterly, 17, 4, pp.351–65.
Sellars, R. (1922) Evolutionary Naturalism, Open Court, Chicago, IL.
Senge, P. (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation, Doubleday, New York, NY.
Skyttner, L. (2006) General Systems Theory: Problems, Perspectives, Practice, World Scientific, London.
Suppe, F. (1989) The Semantic Conception of Theories and Scientific Realism, University of Illinois Press, Champaign IL.
Thompson, P. (1988) ‘Explanation in the semantic conception of theory structure’, Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, 1988, 2, pp.286–96.
Tushman, M. and Anderson, P. (1986) ‘Technological discontinuities and organisational environments’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 31, 3, pp.439–65.
Tyler, J., Wilkinson, D. and Huberman, B. (2005) ‘E-mail as spectroscopy: automated discovery of community structure within organisations’, Information Society, 21, 2, pp.133 41.
Uhl-Bien, M., Marion, R. and McKelvey, B. (2007) ‘Complexity leadership theory: shifting leadership from the industrial-age to the knowledge-era’, Leadership Quarterly, 18, 4, pp.298–318.
Van de Ven, A. (1989) ‘Nothing is quite so practical as a good theory’, Academy of Management Review, 14, 4, pp.486–89.
Weiner, N. (1948) Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, Wiley, New York, NY.
Wheatley, M. (1999) Leadership and the New Science, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco.
Zott, C. (2003) ‘Dynamic capabilities and the emergence of intra-industry differential firm performance: insights from a simulation study’, Strategic Management Journal, 24, 2, pp.97–125.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Ablowitz, R. (1939) ‘The theory of emergence’, Philosophy of Science, 6, 1, pp.1–16.

[2] Anderson, P. (1999) ‘Complexity theory and organisation science’, Organisation Science, 10, 3, pp.216–32.

[3] Blackler, F., Crump, N. and McDonald, S. (2000) ‘Organising processes in complex activity networks’, Organisation, 7, 2, pp.277–300.

[4] Blumer, H. (1954) ‘What is wrong with social theory?‘, American Sociological Review, 19, 1, pp.3–10.

[5] Brown, S. and Eisenhardt, K. (1997) ‘The art of continuous change: linking complexity theory and time-paced evolution in relentlessly shifting organisations’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 42, 1, pp.1–34.

[6] Burnes, B. (2005) ‘Complexity theories and organisational change’, International Journal of Management Reviews, 7, 2, pp.73–90.

[7] Burns, J. (1978) Leadership, Harper and Row, New York, NY.

[8] Carte, T., Chidambaram, L. and Becker, A. (2006) ‘Emergent leadership in self-managed virtual teams: a longitudinal study of concentrated and shared leadership behaviours’, Group Decision and Negotiation, 15, 4, pp.323–43.

[9] Checkland, P. (2000) ‘Soft systems methodology: a thirty year retrospective’, Systems Research and Behavioural Science, 17, S1, pp.S11–58.

[10] Chiles, T., Meyer, A. and Hench, T. (2004) “Organisational emergence: the origin and transformation of Branson', Missouri's musical theatres', Organisation Science, 15, 5, pp.499–519.

[11] Cohen, M., March, J. and Olsen, J. (1972) ‘A garbage can model of organisational choice’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 17, 1, pp.1–25.

[12] Corbin, J. and Strauss, A. (2008) Basics of Qualitative Research, Sage, London.

[13] Dewey, J. (1905) ‘The realism of pragmatism’, Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, 2, 12, pp.324–27.

[14] Eisenhardt, K. (1989) ‘Building theories from case study research’, Academy of Management Review, 14, 4, pp.532–50.

[15] Geertz, C. (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures, Basic Books, New York, NY.

[16] Gioia, M. and Pitre, E. (1990) ‘Multiparadigm perspectives on theory building’, Academy of Management Review, 15, 4, pp.584–602.

[17] Goldberg, J. and Markoczy, L. (2000) ‘Complex rhetoric and simple games’, Emergence: Complexity and Organisation, 2, 1, pp.72–100.

[18] Goldstein, J. (1999) ‘Emergence as a construct: history and issues’, Emergence: Complexity and Organisation, 1, 1, pp.49–72.

[19] Goldstein, J. (2008) ‘Conceptual foundations of complexity science: development and main constructs’ in Uhl-Bien, M. and Marion, R. (eds) Complexity Leadership Part I: Conceptual Foundations, Information Age Publishing, North Carolina, pp.17–48.

[20] Goldstein, J. (2010) ‘Classic paper: The Theory of Emergence’, Emergence: Complexity and Organisation, 12, 3, pp.133–54.

[21] Hannan, M. and Freeman, J. (1984) ‘Structural inertia and organisational change’, American Sociological Review, 49, 2, pp.149–64.

[22] Hazy, J. (2006) ‘Measuring leadership effectiveness in complex socio-technical systems’, Emergence: Complexity and Organisation, 8, 3, pp.58–77.

[23] Hazy, J. (2008) ‘Patterns of leadership: a case study of influence signalling in an entrepreneurial firm’ in Uhl-Bien, M. and Marion, R. (eds) Complexity Leadership Part I: Conceptual Foundations, Information Age Publishing, North Carolina, pp.379–415.

[24] Huygens, M., Baden-Fuller, C., Van Den Bosch, F. and Volberda, H. (2001) ‘Co-evolution of firm capabilities and industry competition: investigating the music industry’, Organisation Studies, 22, 6, pp.971–1011.

[25] Johns, N. and Lee-Ross, D. (1998) Research Methods in Service Industry Management, Cassell, London.

[26] Juriado, R. and Niklas, G. (2007) ‘Emergent communities of practice in temporary inter-organisational partnerships’, Learning Organisation, 14, 1, pp.50–61.

[27] Kaczmarski, K. M. and Cooperrider, D. L. (1997) ‘Constructionist leadership in the global relational age’, Organisation and Environment, 10, 3, pp.235–58.

[28] Kauffman, S. (1993) The Origins of Order, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

[29] Kickul, J. and Neuman, G. (2000) ‘Emergent leadership behaviours: the function of personality and cognitive ability in determining teamwork performance and KSAs’, Journal of Business and Psychology, 15, 1, pp.27–51.

[30] Lee, A. (1989) ‘Case studies as natural experiments’, Human Relations, 42, 2, pp.117–37.

[31] Levinthal, D. and Warglien, M. (1999) ‘Landscape design: designing for local action in complex worlds’, Organisation Science, 10, 3, pp.342–57.

[32] Lewin, K. (1952) ‘Group decision and social change’ in Swanson, G., Newcomb, T. and Hartley, E. (eds) Readings in Social Psychology, Holt, New York, NY, pp.459–73.

[33] Lichtenstein, B. (2000) ‘Self-organised transitions: a pattern amid the chaos of transformative change’, Academy of Management Executive, 14, 4, pp.128–41.

[34] Lichtenstein, B. and Plowman, D. (2009) ‘The leadership of emergence: a complex systems leadership theory of emergence at successive organisational levels’, Leadership Quarterly, 20, 4, pp.617–30.

[35] Lichtenstein, B., Uhl-Bien, M., Marion, R., Seers, A., Orton, J. and Schreiber, C. (2006) ‘Complexity leadership theory: an interactive perspective on leading in complex adaptive systems’, Emergence: Complexity and Organisation, 8, 4, pp.2–12.

[36] Lynham, S. (2000) ‘Theory building in the human resource development profession’, Human Resource Development Quarterly, 11, 2, pp.159–78.

[37] Lynham, S. (2002) ‘The general method of applied theory building research’, Advances in Developing Human Resources, 4, 3, pp.221–41.

[38] Macintosh, R. and Maclean, D. (1999) ‘Conditioned emergence: a dissipative structures approach to transformation’, Strategic Management Journal, 20, 4, pp.297–316.

[39] March, J. (1991) ‘Exploration and exploitation in organisational learning’, Organisation Science, 2, 1, pp.71–87.

[40] Marion, R. (2008) ‘Complexity theory for organisations and organisational leadership’ in Uhl-Bien, M. and Marion, R. (eds) Complexity Leadership Part I: Conceptual Foundations, Information Age Publishing, North Carolina, pp.1–16.

[41] Marion, R. and Uhl-Bien, M. (2001) ‘Leadership in complex organisations’, Leadership Quarterly, 12, pp.389–418.

[42] McKelvey, B. (1999) ‘Complexity theory in organisation science: seizing the promise or becoming a fad?‘, Emergence: Complexity and Organisation, 1, 1, pp.5–32.

[43] McKelvey, B. (2008) ‘Emergent strategy via complexity leadership: using complexity science and adaptive tension to build distributed intelligence’ in Uhl-Bien, M. and Marion, R. (eds) Complexity Leadership Part I: Conceptual Foundations, Information Age Publishing, North Carolina, pp.225–68.

[44] McKendrick, D., Jaffee, J., Carroll, G. and Khessina, O. (2003) ‘In the bud? Disk array producers as a (possibly) emergent organisational form’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 48, 1, pp.60–93.

[45] Mintzberg, H. (1994) The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, Free Press, New York, NY.

[46] Moldoveanu, M. and Bauer, R. (2004) ‘On the relationship between organisational complexity and organisational structuration’, Organisation Science, 15, 1, pp.98–118.

[47] Morgan, G. (1998) Images of Organisation, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Oakland, CA.

[48] Nicolis, G. and Prigogine, I. (1977) Self-Organisation in Non-equilibrium Systems: From Dissipative Structures to Order through Fluctuations, Wiley, New York, NY.

[49] Osborn, R., Hunt, J. and Jauch, L. (2002) ‘Toward a contextual theory of leadership’, Leadership Quarterly, 13, 6, pp.797–837.

[50] Pescosolido, A. (2002) ‘Emergent leaders as managers of group emotion’, Leadership Quarterly, 13, 5, pp.583–99.

[51] Plowman, D., Baker, L., Beck, T., Kulkarni, M., Solanski, S. and Travis, D. (2007) ‘Radical change accidentally: the emergence and amplification of small change’, Academy of Management Journal, 50, 3, pp.515–43.

[52] Plowman, D. and Duchon, D. (2008) ‘Dispelling the myths about leadership: from cybernetics to emergence’ in Uhl-Bien, M. and Marion, R. (eds) Complexity Leadership Part I: Conceptual Foundations, Information Age Publishing, North Carolina, pp.129–52.

[53] Plowman, D., Solanski, S., Beck, T., Baker, L., Kulkarni, M. and Travis, D. (2007) ‘The role of leadership in emergent self-organisation’, Leadership Quarterly, 18, 4, pp.341–56.

[54] Polanyi, M. (1968) ‘Life's irreducible structure’, Science, 160, 3834, pp.1308–12.

[55] Prietula, M. and Carley, K. (1994) ‘Computational organisation theory: autonomous agents and emergent behaviour’, Journal of Organisational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 4, 1, pp.41–83.

[56] Prigogine, I. (1997) The End of Certainty: Time, Chaos, and the New Laws of Nature, Free Press, New York, NY.

[57] Prigogine, I. and Stengers, I. (1984) Order out of Chaos, Bantam, New York, NY.

[58] Reynolds, C. (1987) ‘Flocks, herds and schools: a distributed behavioural model’, Computer Graphics, 21, 4, pp.25–34.

[59] Schneider, M. and Somers, M. (2006) ‘Organisations as complex adaptive systems: implications of complexity theory for leadership research’, Leadership Quarterly, 17, 4, pp.351–65.

[60] Sellars, R. (1922) Evolutionary Naturalism, Open Court, Chicago, IL.

[61] Senge, P. (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation, Doubleday, New York, NY.

[62] Skyttner, L. (2006) General Systems Theory: Problems, Perspectives, Practice, World Scientific, London.

[63] Suppe, F. (1989) The Semantic Conception of Theories and Scientific Realism, University of Illinois Press, Champaign IL.

[64] Thompson, P. (1988) ‘Explanation in the semantic conception of theory structure’, Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, 1988, 2, pp.286–96.

[65] Tushman, M. and Anderson, P. (1986) ‘Technological discontinuities and organisational environments’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 31, 3, pp.439–65.

[66] Tyler, J., Wilkinson, D. and Huberman, B. (2005) ‘E-mail as spectroscopy: automated discovery of community structure within organisations’, Information Society, 21, 2, pp.133 41.

[67] Uhl-Bien, M., Marion, R. and McKelvey, B. (2007) ‘Complexity leadership theory: shifting leadership from the industrial-age to the knowledge-era’, Leadership Quarterly, 18, 4, pp.298–318.

[68] Van de Ven, A. (1989) ‘Nothing is quite so practical as a good theory’, Academy of Management Review, 14, 4, pp.486–89.

[69] Weiner, N. (1948) Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, Wiley, New York, NY.

[70] Wheatley, M. (1999) Leadership and the New Science, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco.

[71] Zott, C. (2003) ‘Dynamic capabilities and the emergence of intra-industry differential firm performance: insights from a simulation study’, Strategic Management Journal, 24, 2, pp.97–125.