Chris Mowles's Books

Complexity

A Key Idea for Business and Society

By: Chris Mowles

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Complexity

A Key Idea for Business and Society

By: Chris Mowles

This book interprets insights from the complexity sciences to explore seven types of complexity better to understand the predictable unpredictability of social life. Drawing on the natural and social sciences, it describes how complexity models are helpful but insufficient for our understanding of complex reality. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the book develops a complex theory of action more consistent with our experience that our plans inevitably lead to unexpected outcomes, explains why we are both individuals and thoroughly social, and gives an account of why, no matter how clear our message, we may still be misunderstood. The book investigates what forms of knowledge are most helpful for thinking about complex experience, reflects on the way we exercise authority (leadership) and thinks through the ethical implications of trying to co-operate in a complex world. Taking complexity seriously poses a radical challenge to more orthodox theories of managing and leading, based as they are on assumptions of predictability, control and universality. The author argues that management is an improvisational practice which takes place in groups in a particular context at a particular time. Managers can influence but never control an uncontrollable world. To become more skilful in complex group dynamics involves taking into account multiple points of view and acknowledging not knowing, ambivalence and doubt. This book will be of interest to researchers, professionals, academics and students in the fields of business and management, especially those interested in how taking complexity seriously can influence the functioning of businesses and organizations and how they manage and lead.

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Page Count

201

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1000505685

ISBN 13

9781000505689

Rethinking Management

Radical Insights from the Complexity Sciences

By: Chris Mowles

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Rethinking Management

Radical Insights from the Complexity Sciences

By: Chris Mowles

What do business school graduates learn, and how helpful is it for managing in the everyday, messy reality of organisations? What does it mean to apply 'best practice', or to take up 'evidence-based management' and what kind of thinking does this imply? In Rethinking Management, Chris Mowles argues that many management courses still largely assume a linear and predictable world, when experience tells us that the opposite is the case. He questions some of the more orthodox conceptual assumptions that underpin much management education and instead, encourages leaders and managers to take their everyday experience of working with others seriously. People in organisations co-operate and compete to get things done, and constrain and enable each other in relationships of power. Because of this there are always unintended consequences of our actions - uncertainty is inherent in the everyday. Chris Mowles draws on the complexity sciences, the sciences of uncertainty rather than certainty, and the social sciences to explore more helpful ways to think and talk about our lived reality. He takes concrete examples from contemporary organisations, to argue that understanding the radical implications of uncertainty is central to the task of leading. Rethinking Management explores narrative alternatives to the ubiquitous grids and frameworks that are routinely taught in business schools, and encourages management professionals and educators to recognise the importance of judgement, improvisation and the everyday politics of organisational life.

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Page Count

441

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317063961

ISBN 13

9781317063964

Managing in Uncertainty

Complexity and the paradoxes of everyday organizational life

By: Chris Mowles

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Managing in Uncertainty

Complexity and the paradoxes of everyday organizational life

By: Chris Mowles

The reality of everyday organizational life is that it is filled with uncertainty, contradictions and paradoxes. Yet leaders and managers are expected to act as though they can predict the future and bring about the impossible: that they can transform themselves and their colleagues, design different cultures, choose the values for their organization, be innovative, control conflict and have inspiring visions. Whilst managers will have had lots of experiences of being in charge, they probably realise that they are not always in control. So how might we frame a much more realistic account of what’s possible for managers to achieve? Many managers are implicitly aware of their messy reality, but they rarely spend much time reflecting on what it is that they are actually doing. Drawing on insights from the complexity sciences, process sociology and pragmatic philosophy, Chris Mowles engages directly with some principal contradictions of organizational life concerning innovation, culture change, conflict and leadership. Mowles argues that if managers proceed from the expectation that organizational life as inherently uncertain, and interactions between people are complex and often paradoxical, they start noticing different things and create possibilities for acting in different ways. Managing in Uncertainty will be of interest to practitioners, advanced students and researchers looking at management and organizational studies from a critical perspective.

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Page Count

189

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317550358

ISBN 13

9781317550358

Rethinking Management

Radical Insights from the Complexity Sciences

By: Chris Mowles

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Rethinking Management

Radical Insights from the Complexity Sciences

By: Chris Mowles

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

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Page Count

441

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317063961

ISBN 13

9781317063964

Complexity

A Key Idea for Business and Society

By: Chris Mowles

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Complexity

A Key Idea for Business and Society

By: Chris Mowles

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Age

Page Count

201

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1000505685

ISBN 13

9781000505689

Managing in Uncertainty

Complexity and the paradoxes of everyday organizational life

By: Chris Mowles

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Managing in Uncertainty

Complexity and the paradoxes of everyday organizational life

By: Chris Mowles

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Page Count

226

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

131755034X

ISBN 13

9781317550341

The Wiggly World of Organization

Muddling Through with Purpose, Courage and Skill

By: Chris Rodgers

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The Wiggly World of Organization

Muddling Through with Purpose, Courage and Skill

By: Chris Rodgers

The well-ordered, fully aligned view of organization and management practice, with its unfailingly positive results, bears little relationship to the world that managers and others experience every day. This straight-line, ‘do this and you’ll get that’ idealization is far removed from the wiggly reality. Despite this, the former continues to dominate the ways in which management is spoken about and judged in formal organizational arenas and wider society. This creates unrealistic expectations of what managers (from CEO to the front line) can sensibly achieve independently of the actions of others. Crucially, too, it distorts the ways in which they and others account formally for their actions. And so, the fantasy continues. Against this background, the book offers a radically different way of thinking about, and engaging with, the irreducible complexity of organization and management practice. Using straightforward language throughout, it sets out to help managers and others to become consciously aware of what they already know deep down about how organization works and what they – and everyone else – are actually doing in practice. It then offers a practical approach to everyday practice that takes complexity seriously. Armed with these new insights, readers will be better placed to apply their innate understanding and practical judgement to the demands that they and others face day to day. Whether these arise from their roles as managers, other practitioners, policy makers, regulatory authorities, or participants more generally.

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Page Count

222

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1000367428

ISBN 13

9781000367423

Book's by Chris Mowles

Complexity

Complexity

Rethinking Management

Rethinking Management

Managing in Uncertainty

Managing in Uncertainty

Rethinking Management

Rethinking Management

Complexity

Complexity

Managing in Uncertainty

Managing in Uncertainty

The Wiggly World of Organization

The Wiggly World of Organization

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