Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explain why systems must make a habit of exploring the unknown and identify the complex and chaotic dynamics that drive modern volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) situations. Design/methodology/approach -Eight faculty staff from the "Thunderbird School of Global Management" were interviewed around the subject of "what does it take to be a successful 21st Century leader?" in spring 2012. These interviews were then analysed using Ricoeur's Hermeneutic methodology which resulted in three behaviours being identified. Then, according to Ricoeur's methodology, deep interpretation of the results took place to understand these research results through the lens of complexity science. Findings -Systems must make a habit of actively exploring the unknown to discover the patterns that cause complex chaos. This enables them to improve their capacity to generate useful situational understanding in VUCA environments and better position themselves in the fitness landscape. Finally, the idea of "epistemic stance" is introduced as an important way of managing identity and improving innovation.Research limitations/implications -The implication is that modern systems, e.g. leaders and organisations, must make a habit of exploring the unknown to find and understand the dynamics that drive the complex world if they are to build effective situational understanding of VUCA environments. Practical implications -If systems wish to innovate, they must ensure they have the appropriate epistemic stance in place so that they can change their identity to allow innovation to transform the identity. Originality/value -Whilst the behaviour of exploration is already known, this research focuses that behaviour on specifically identifying the patterns that cause complex chaos. Further, the epistemic stance is introduced which plays an important role in regulating how open a system is to changing its identity and therefore adapting and innovating.
Purpose -Research was conducted in order to identify behaviours that improve a system viability in a complex, chaotic and volatile world. The purpose of this paper is to explain why complex cybernetic systems must be authentic over time in order to maximise their viability in a complex, chaotic and volatile world. Design/methodology/approach -In total, eight faculty staff from the Thunderbird School of Global Management were interviewed around the subject of "being a successful 21st century leader". These interviews were analysed using Ricoeur's hermeneutic methodology which resulted in three behaviours being identified: be authentic, open and transparent; these behaviours were then deep interpreted according to Ricoeur's methodology using cybernetic principles. This is an innovative piece of research that brings together phenomenology, cybernetics and leadership studies but it is also limited by being a new approach. Findings -Complex cybernetic systems must be authentic because authentic behaviour nurtures the system's identity and ensures that it is able to consistently generate a clear goal signal. It is also proposed that authenticity is important for coping with the "law of variety" by acting as an amplification mechanism.Research limitations/implications -The research implication is that it is possible to identify behaviours to improve the viability of all complex cybernetic systems. Originality/value -The work is highly original because it provides a cybernetic explanation for why authentic behaviour is necessary. As far as the author is aware, no work has yet combined cybernetics with leadership behaviours and provided a cogent explanation for why authenticity is so important for system viability. The value of this work is that it clearly shows the value of authentic behaviour by showing how and why authentic behaviour improves system viability and how inauthentic behaviour harms system viability.
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