Doug Garnett wrote a blog post titled The Unspoken Limits of Business Philosophy. Fortunately, the World Is Far Bigger (28 February 2024).
Doug’s brother asked « whether complexity is a science or a philosophy… The question returned recently while reading Toward a Process Approach in Psychology by Paul van Geert and Naomi de Ruiter. This excellent academic book looks at the study of psychology contrasting two “ontologies” — one based on traditional reductionist science (the “substance ontology”) and one based on complexity (the “process ontology”)... Essentially, an ontology refers to a set of underlying assumptions about the parts of a field, how they relate, and what happens in practice. »
« Business today reminds me of substance ontology work. Businesses use data, averages, and statistics to remove every significant specific about individual businesses. The claim is that by finding what is common among all businesses something has been found which is “universal.” This is a giant leap of assumption. Especially since success depends heavily on the specific details of each individual business… The “managerial ontology,” then, dominates business without anyone realizing it also limits how much they can understand about business reality or that it limits the arena within which they can act. »
« Complexity science is a specific scientific study looking at how patterns emerge from masses of interacting parts whose behaviors, interactions, and adaptations appear chaotic and even accidental.
To understand complexity science, though, we must accept that coherent whole patterns emerge from masses of interacting parts. In other words, we have to shift our world view away from traditional reductionist science. »
« It is useful to compare the managerial and the complex with [psychiatrist] Iain McGilchrist’s view of the two hemispheres of the brain. In his view, the left hemisphere abstracts the world into details and parts in order to manipulate the parts (aka managerialism) while the right hemisphere pays attention to the whole result of what is around us (aka complexity).
Who should be in charge? The complex ontology. »
« One of the distinctions between the hemispheres is that the right hemisphere seems to be able to use what the left hemisphere knows, but the left hemisphere doesn’t seem capable of taking into account what the right hemisphere knows. »
« Thus, managerialism is so limited it cannot be allowed to lead as it is impossible to perceive complexity at work from within a managerial mindset. Yet, it is entirely reasonable for those with a complexity mindset to realize where managerialism might be highly effective. While businesses must rely on both ontologies, complexity must lead with the managerial an able and excellent assistant. »
Articles of Interest 