Strategy for Managing Complex Systems

Malik demonstrates that management and management theory have strong foundations in systems science, and most specifically in a certain type of cybernetics of truly complex systems, of organismic, self-organizing, and evolving systems.
We live in a world of highly complex systems. Many of these systems are extremely fragile, we do not have any substantial knowledge of their structure or behavior, and we are far from having them under control. It seems as though even minute occurrences can cause these systems to implode and/or gather alarming momentum, which our institutions are hardly prepared and equipped to deal with.
This underlines the urgency of studying complex systems more thoroughly, rather than indulging in quick fixes and can-doism. Only then will we adequately value the most important function of our 21st-century society of complexity the management of its institutions and organizations and be able to implement the necessary improvements. Cybernetic management means self-organization: organizing a complex system in such a way that it will be able to self-organize. That means we will migrate to completely new and different solutions. This book provides the basics on how to create robust, functional, and sustainably viable systems. One of the reasons why it has become a classic on management cybernetics, now in its 11th edition, is that the strategies and heuristic principles of complexity management are still relevant now more than ever.
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