Why Modern Management / New Work Methodologies perform better in a VUCA world. Research on Patterns and Principles found in Nature, the undefeated master of complexity.
Research Paper
Working Title:
Why Modern Management / New Work Methodologies perform better in a VUCA world. Research on Patterns and Principles found in Nature, the undefeated master of complexity.
Key Content / Ideas:
- Intro & Motivation on Why VUCA matters & what it changes exponentiality
- “I think the next century will be the century of complexity” – Stephen Hawking.
- Overview of Modern Management Practices / New Work
- Selection of Key Mgmt. Methodologies for our Research
- Agile incl. Scrum & Kanban
- Lean Management / Lean Start-up
- Design Thinking (Stanford d.school / Hasso Plattner Institute)
- Network Organization / Holacracy / OKR
- Basic Characteristics of the Methodologies
- What do they have in common / what not?
- What is the differentiation from “old” practices?
- Comparison with Principles & Patterns based on Biomimicry
- Theory of Constraints [Wolfgang Mewes & Eliyahu Goldratt]
- Cybernetics inspired by bionics as foundation for effectiveness
- The Company as Living System [Core Pillar of this Paper]
- Fredmund Malik / Frederic Vester / Stafford Beer
- Feedback Loops incl. Law of Accelerating Returns
- Evolution as Core Foundation / Fitness Function / Diverge & Converge
- Metamorphosis as Chain of S-Curves of Growth
- Ambidextrous of Explore & Exploit
- Sense & Response (no artificial boundary between planning & acting)
- Effects of Neuroscience findings on Management
- The Pumpkin Plan [Mike Michalowicz] like Cut to Grow
- Principle of Catalysts as optimal work environment
- Principles of Life (please use Google Translate, just inspiration)
- Form follows function as one learning from biology
- https://asknature.org/biological-strategies/
Must-Have Sources [number of sources should be equal/higher than number of text pages]:
- Books of the named people in the above section [Malik is the most important]
- Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature [Janine M. Benyus]
- The Origins of Order [Stuart A. Kauffman]
- Complexity: A Guided Tour [Melanie Mitchell]
- SCALE (Geoffrey West)
- The Logic Of Failure [Dietrich Dorner]
Paper Requirements:
- 50 Pages [13.750 Words]; Double Spacing; APA 7
- PhD / Doctoral Level of research & writing
- Interdisciplinary → Complex demand
- Proper extensive Source Work needed
- Charts / Tables as needed in the text
- Target Group: Readers of Management Journals
Summary in Simple Words: Agile & Co perform better than traditional Mgmt. Tools in our Today VUCA World. Why is that? Can we find the answer via Learning from Nature that is performing since ever in a VUCA setup and has had millions of years to optimize?
