Emergence in Organizations

Emergence became thought of as one of the defining properties of complex systems and over the last twenty years there has been a wide-ranging debate about its nature and causes. However, although emergence may be a defining property of complex systems but it is itself far from easy to define. A more easier(rather complicated) definition is

Emergence is the production of global patterns of behaviour by agents in a complex system interacting according to their own local rules of behaviour, without intending the global patterns of behaviour that come about. In emergence, global patterns cannot be predicted from the local rules of behaviour that produce them. To put it another way, global patterns cannot be reduced to individual behaviour. (Stacey 1996:287)

Designing for Emergence in Organizations is still in its infancy with traditional command and control paradigm widely adopted. Here is a list showing differences between command and control paradigm and emergent paradigm

Command & control paradigm	Emergent paradigm
Keep people in ‘silos’	Build connectivity
Ensure everyone ‘salutes the flag’	Encourage diversity
Manage communication initiatives	Have conversations in corridors
Blame people for failures	Learn from events
Make it clear who’s in charge	Give everyone leadership opportunities
Tell people what to do	Tell people what not to do
Set objectives	Agree clear goals
Keep busy	Wait expectantly

Reference
1. "Emergence in Organizations" by Richard Seel