Complexity and Management

Course aim

This course provides students with theoretical and practical knowledge of complexity in the organisational context and explores its impact on organisational management and leadership, business strategy, and business conduct. The course critically explores ways in which actors practice in organisations where complexity, unpredictability and uncertainty are a part of everyday life.

Students completing the course develop a body of knowledge that:

• Contributes to a comprehensive and integrated application of complexity in the organisational context to recent developments in the field of senior organisational management and leadership in international business environments.
• Provides a pathway for further learning.

Course content

Topics covered in this course include:

• Systems thinking.
• Critical systems thinking.
• Chaos theory.
• Emergence and self-organization.
• Forms of causality.
• Complex adaptive systems.
• The civilizing organisation.
• Complex responsive processes of relating.

Textbook(s)

Stacey, RD 2010, Complexity and Organizational Reality: Uncertainty and the need to rethink management after the collapse of investment capitalism, Routledge, London

Prerequisite(s)

Common to all relevant programs
Subject Area & Catalogue Number	Course Name
BUSS 5244	Contemporary Management Skills

Corequisite(s)

Nil

Teaching method

Component	Duration
INTERNAL, CITY WEST
Seminar	3 hrs + 9 hrs x 2 days + 3 days

Note: These components may or may not be scheduled in every study period. Please refer to the timetable for further details.

Assessment

Individual Essay, Individual Project summary and presentation, Individual Reflective journal

Fees

EFTSL*: 0.125
Commonwealth Supported program (Band 3)
To determine the fee for this course as part of a Commonwealth Supported program, go to:
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Fee-paying program for domestic and international students
International students and students undertaking this course as part of a postgraduate fee paying program must refer to the relevant program home page to determine the cost for undertaking this course.

Non-award enrolment
Non-award tuition fees are set by the university. To determine the cost of this course, go to:
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Not all courses are available on all of the above bases, and students must check to ensure that they are permitted to enrol in a particular course.

* Equivalent Full Time Study Load. Please note: all EFTSL values are published and calculated at ten decimal places. Values are displayed to three decimal places for ease of interpretation.