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The Edge of Organization
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The Edge of Organization
Chaos and Complexity Theories of Formal Social Systems



January 1999 | 376 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
"What Newton's Principia was to his natural science colleagues, Russ Marion's The Edge of Organization is to today's social scientists. This book clearly elucidates the arrival of the social sciences at the end of the alley of modernism but then presents us with the tools and ideas to climb out of a dead end, rise above old limitations, and take flight for new horizons bright with promise for advancing both theory and praxis. . . . For social scientists, it is both the most relevant and most easily apprehended treatment to date of the totality of chaos and complexity theory and technique." --Raymond A. Eve, Editor, Chaos, Complexity, and Sociology The Edge of Organization offers a readable, comprehensive, and integrated overview of the new sciences of chaos and complexity. Author Russ Marion describes formal and social organizations from the perspective of chaos and complexity theories. His multidisciplinary approach will appeal to students and scholars across a wide range of social sciences. This book is generously illustrated and includes comprehensive references plus an annotated bibliography of useful books and articles. The Edge of Organization will appeal to students and professionals in sociology, management/ organization studies, management studies, marketing, political science, public administration, and psychology.

 
The Edge of Organization
 
Chaos and Organization
 
Organization at the Edge
 
Shifting Historical Premises to the Edge of Chaos
 
A Nonlinear Redaction of Open Systems
 
Structural Contingency Theory
Differentiation and Awareness

 
 
Footprints of Complexity
The Nature of Order

 
 
Resource Dependency
The Emergence of Order

 
 
Organizations in Wonderland
Enacted Environment

 
 
Coupling at the Edge
 
Darwin and Organizations, Goats and Monkeys
 
Pushing the Envelope
Limiting Organizational Expansion

 
 
Changing Complex Organizations
 
Stability and Change at the Edge
 
Researching Social Chaos and Complexity
 
Epilogue on Einstein's Island

This provides the more ambitions students to extend their psychological and sociological knowledge in applied settings. However, it is beyond the scope of the learning outcomes for essential reading.

Mr Jamie Sims
Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Chichester University
January 13, 2011

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ISBN: 9781452263762

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