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Rationality and UnambiguityRationality and InnovationRationality and the UnexpectedRationality and ContractionGuiding Process Handling the PresentGuiding Process Social ComplexityGuiding Process NetworkingGuiding Process Goal processingOrganisational OverloadRisky FreedomThe UnregulatableUncertainty Absorption and OrganisationRationality and Chaos

Rationality and Chaos

An environment’s rational attitude normally interprets the non-predictable as chaos. That which cannot be accessed through cause and effect causalities, will, correspondingly, be processed reactively. In organisations which are very rationally structured, this phenomenon is called ‘fire-fighting’. Everything which is surprising and has not been reckoned with, is seen as fire, which must be extinguished, and brought back into proper order. Therefore, ‘chaos’ is interpreted as undesired, a nuisance and a sign of erroneous planning. But this is not the way for an organisation to learn from that, which it sees as an error:

• The quick solutions that have been found, are not usually absorbed into the memory of the organisation. Therefore, little confidence is created that next time things will be different.
• The problems are solved, but are not understood, or wrongly understood as errors, so that the attention towards early and weak signals are not developed.
• The fear in the organisation about the unexpected is high, so that the control activities also remain high and one attempts to gain control of the uncontrollable