Emergence, change and precarious systems: A new lens on people and organisation

The modern world is characterised by complexity and uncertainty, within an environment of evolutionary and

revolutionary change. New holistic, multifaceted and innovative research is needed to enhance how we

understand the way people organize in this environment. Recent research has moved away from strategies

seeking mere efficiencies in the production of goods and services, towards strategies that encourage creativity

and innovation and are socially and ethically acceptable.

These newer strategies are socially innovative. That is, they develop concepts and tools to enable individuals

and communities to organise in a way which promotes both material standard of living and personal well-being.

Necessarily, understanding people and organisation – that is, the phenomenon of organisation itself and its

human dimension, not simply various different organisations – is crucial to this endeavour. It means

understanding change, both planned and emergent, and coming to terms with the precarious nature of many

systems which support the way people organise in a changing environment. Using the research being

undertaken by members of the ‘people and organisation’ research node of SInet, the paper reflects on the

matrix of issues that arise from considering, on the one hand, ‘people’ and ‘organization’ and, on the other,

‘change’, ‘emergence’ and ‘precariousness’. While the projects are diverse, they are linked through their

commitment to investigating people and organization through an SI lens.