After working through the theoretical foundations Powerpoint (click here), select only one of the theories and discuss its usefulness in the context of managing organizations. Use online peer-reviewed journal research (case study research is best) to inform your writing, and to advance the theoretical discussion beyond what you encountered in the PowerPoint. You may select a theory that you will eventually use elsewhere in the course (such as in the theoretical paper assignment next week—hint, hint).
Your initial post should contain 3 scholarly citations and 3 references minimum (your textbook may NOT serve as a source for this forum).
After reviewing this week’s required PowerPoint presentation, the theory I chose to further discuss is complexity theory. According to the presentation, complexity theory is relevant to all traditional fields, focuses on specific questions about parts, wholes and relationships, cuts across all disciplines of science and, is the study of complex systems and understanding their indirect effects (Introduction to the Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations of Organizational Management, n.d., p. 19). Another more specific definition of complexity theory is that it is the study of “how order, structure, pattern, and novelty arise from extremely complicated, apparently chaotic systems and conversely, how complex behavior and structure emerges from simple underlying rules” (Cooke-Davies et al., 2007, p. 52).
Complexity theory and, in turn, complexity thinking is ideally suited in for managing organizations because ‘“complexity management is coupled to ethics or values – the need to encourage a diversity and autonomous action implies a respect for other people (and their ideas) and a high level of trust’ and a common vision” (as cited in Swanson & Zhang, 2011, p. 40).
The third article I chose to review for this week’s assignment leaned more towards public policy however, I found that it offered an additional perspective to the context of managing organizations through its explanation of what complexity theory argues and how the complex systems are created and interact with each other. As explained, “complexity theory argues that systems evolve with each other in a non-linear fashion and systems are subject to dynamic feedbacks both in positive and negative sense…[by] coevolve[ing] with each other with potentials to ‘coorganize’” (Burgra & Guven, 2013, p. 95). With that in mind,
“Many complex systems are systems within larger complex systems, within still larger complex system, and so on. Taken together, these nested systems constitute a system ‘whole’. ‘Self-similarity’ means that characteristics identified at one level of the system will also be present in the while…the dynamism of the systems arise from each element that makes up the system being influenced by, and in turn influencing, each other constituent. The dynamism of the system can result in the emergence of new patterns through ‘self-organization’ of the elements of the system. It is possible to influence the ‘attractors’ around which the system stabilizes through the positive and negative feedback looks which create them” (as cited in Burgra & Guven, 2013, p. 95).
I take this excerpt to apply very directly to the concept of organizational management because, especially in large organizations, everything co-exists together and is generally a part of a larger system. Management in organizations must be consistent, especially when there are systems within systems, as the above quote explains.

References
Cooke-Davies, T., Cicmil, S., Crawford, L., & Richardson, K. (2007). We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto: mapping the strange landscape of complexity theory, and its relationship to project management. Project Management Journal, 38(2). 50-61. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy2.apus.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=25532330&site=ehost-live
Ozer, B. & Seker, G. (2013). Complexity theory and public policy: a new way to put new public management and governance in perspective. Suleyman Demirel University Journal of Faculty of Economics & Administrative Sciences, 18(1), 89-102. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy2.apus.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=88840582&site=ehost-live
Swanson, L. A. & Zhang, D. D. (2011) Complexity theory and the social entrepreneurship zone. Emergence: Complexity & Organization, 13(3), 39-56. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy2.apus.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=70109946&site=ehost-live
Introduction to the theoretical and conceptual foundations of Organizational Management: a primer [PowerPoint slides] (n.d.). Retrieved from APUS MGMT 600 Week 2 Lessons