Managing the Unknowable: Strategic Boundaries Between Order and Chaos in Organizations

by Ralph D. Stacey

Book Overview

It's What You Don't Know That Counts

Discover the important roles chance and uncertainty play insuccessful strategic planning. In this ingenious work, author RalphD. Stacey shows managers how their companies can benefit from theunexpected developments that impact their business and how they canprepare to creatively leverage the opportunities such developmentspresent. He explains how an appreciation of conflict and teamdialogue can help managers...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1555424635
• ISBN13: 9781555424633
• Release Date: November 1992
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Most organizations don't know they do this already

Very thought provoking and only after several weeks of 'mulling' over what I had read did I realize that the global corporation for which I work (along with many others I know)actually does achieve its competitive edge through these instances of creative bounded chaos--they just don't know it yet. Our striving to creative a 'long term strategic vision' is of itself an attempt to explain that which we do not know, cannot control or explain on a balance sheet. Self-awareness being the first step to self-actualization for the individual--the same would apply to my organization successfully navigating its' current transformation. Listening to the words of Stacey would assist enormously in this process.

Insightful, foundational integration of chaos & biz strategy

This book is a highly insightful integration of chaos theory with strategic management, a "must have" for anyone interested in "new science" practically applied in organizations. Stacey's description of an organization as a complex web of relationships in a state of bounded instability is brilliant. Strongly recommended for any manager seeking to avoid portrayal in "Dilbert" - and EVERY executive.