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Complexity in practice

University of Otago, New Zealand, ccampbel.hunt{at}business.otago.ac.nz

Theories of social practice point to a wide domain of largely tacit social accommodations as the source from which the dynamic structures of social practices are sedimented. The strategy-as-practice initiative seeks to use these insights to widen our appreciation of the origins and evolution of strategy in organizations. This ar ticle suggests that this domain, and its components, can be substantively and literally represented as a complex adaptive system. Complexity gives access to a considerable body of theor y on the emergent orders that may arise from social practice, and on the evolution of social order over time. These carry impor tant implications for the scope of practitioners' agency in leading strategic change, for the locus of strategy in organizations, and for the design of research strategies to investigate these complex phenomena.

Key Words: complexity • emergent order • managerial agency • routines • strategy-as-practice

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