Oganization Complex Organization in the

¶ … Oganization Complex organization In the modern day era, the role and practice of management have changed dramatically to increase in importance. Today's managers are visionaries and leaders, as they have to envision the future of the company, and also to devise the strategies to ensure that the company is able to attain its objectives.

The modern day managers then serve multiple tasks, from the division of strategic courses of actions, to resource allocation, foreseeing and adapting to market trends, and also to the motivation of the staff members to support the company. And the modern day companies are no longer simply focused on attaining their profitability objectives, but they have to ensure these through the satisfaction of the needs and wants of various stakeholder categories.

The customers, for instance, become more demanding; the public places more pressure on environmental and social responsibility; the employees become essential; the competition intensifies and so on. In order to answer this multitude of new challenges, the economic agents seek to develop and implement strategies that help them adapt to the new challenges, and also to help them attain their goals.

Recognizing these changes, the specialized literature is filled with theories and analyses of how companies should adjust their business models to better react to the changes in the micro and macro environments. The current project then sets out to present two notable literary sources and the approaches they promote to leadership. The first book is represented by Peter Senge's the fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization, and the second is Margaret Wheatley's Leadership and the new science: discovering order in a chaotic world.

Leadership and the new science…is a provocative piece of reading as it engaged theories of biology and quantum physics to explain organizational dimensions. The book was first published in 1992 and it was edited and republished in 2006. On the one hand, the book employed complex concepts of quantum physics, biology and chaos theory to reveal the changes in the society and the need to adapt.

The concepts are sometimes difficult to comprehend and relate to, but the advantage is that the book focuses on explaining them, as well as how they apply. Eventually, it draws lessons as to how these concepts can be applied into practice, with focus on the fields of change management, leadership and the structure of groups. "We live in a time of chaos, rich in potential for new possibilities. A new world is being born. We need new ideas, new ways of seeing, and new relationships to help us now.

New science -- the new discoveries in biology, chaos theory, and quantum physics that are changing our understanding of how the world works -- offers this guidance" (Google Books, 2012) In the case of the fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization, Peter Senge's approach is more business oriented. The author also militates for a changing community, which forces managers to change and develop in order to be able to respond to the new threats.

His main focus is that the organizations have to continually develop and become learning organizations in order to be able to respond to the changeless of the new society. At this level, it is now important to conduct a more thorough analysis of the two pieces of writing.

In this analysis, emphasis would be placed on the following: The author's purpose in wiring the books and the ability to fulfill the purpose The main ideas transmitted by the authors Managerial contributions made by the books Strengths in explaining points Unanswered questions New thoughts, insights or ideas of the books, and last Information about the authors.

With Leadership and the new science: discovering order in a chaotic world, Margaret Wheatley set out to explain the changing needs within the organizations and to propose new solutions to answering the challenges of the new era. Throughout the first edition of the book, this objective was met only to a limited degree, in the meaning that the book was sometimes considered difficult co comprehend and apply in business practice.

This difficulty was due to the integration of numerous concepts of biology and quantum physics, which seemed incompatible within the business community. Throughout the second edition of the book however, more examples are offered and more personal input is provided. Margaret Wheatley for instance has spent the past decade gathering expertise from different organizations across the world. The new edition of Leadership and the new science…is as such more practical and easier to understand by the business readers.

In such a setting then, it is concluded that the book has attained the purpose for which it was initially intended. In terms of the main ideas, both of the books send the message that the world is rapidly changing and that the economic agents have to adapt to these changes in order to create long-term sustainability of their business agendas.

Margaret Wheatley's approach is that of promoting a deeper understanding of the changing phenomena in the society, whereas Senge's approach is more oriented towards getting organizations to adopt change as an ongoing model. While Wheatley's approach is more theoretical and more explanatory towards the need for new business relationships and decisions, Senge seeks to motivate the organizations to become more flexible and more opened to continuous learning.

As it has already been mentioned, both books deal with aspects of business management as they seek to motivate managers to either adapt to the new society, or conduct this adaptation through ongoing change. Both books as such generate major contributions in terms of change management as they stimulate its implementation, as well as the need for organizational openness towards change and evolution.

As levels of particularity, Wheatley also creates managerial contributions at the level of group dynamics and as such allows the managers to better understand the functioning of organizational teams. Senge on the other hand is more focused on the creation of an organizational vision and the creation and sharing of knowledge; Senge also argues the importance of teams to organizational evolution.

At the level of explanations provided, it has top be recognized that Leadership and the new science: discovering order in a chaotic world is more theoretical and more filled with explanations that the fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. The fifth discipline… excels in motivating managers to adopt a leadership style based on continuous learning, whereas Leadership and the new science… is more focused on explaining the causes of the changes.

From this standpoint then, it is believed that the higher strength in explaining points is possessed by Margaret Wheatley. Then, at the level of the unanswered questions, this is a rather difficult topic to tackle. Both books are written in a comprehensive manner, addressing various dimensions of the assessed topic. Additionally, both books are at their second editions of printing, which means that they are added and improved versions of the first editions.

Still, in spite of this, it is also recognized that the books to leave some unanswered questions at the level of the practical applications. In this order of ideas, the two books promote the need to understand and adapt to the realities of the new society, and the motivation to do this through the learning organization. Nevertheless, the books lack in extensive practical advice as to how the managers could actually go about in implementing the integrated advice.

This shortage could be explained by the fact that each economic agent is unique, being characterized by distinctive features, such as size, number of employees, industry in which it operates and so on. In such a setting, the books transmit the core message towards the need for change, and it is up to the companies to devise the methods through which to implement this change.

The belief is base don the absence of a guaranteed recipe for success, but the need for each company to create its own model, based on its own particularities (Williams, 2010). Last, at the level of the new thoughts and ideas integrated, both books are essential as they both introduce innovative concepts and ideas. The fifth discipline…for instance was the first book to coin the term of organizational learning. It promoted the novel idea that companies should continually develop and evolve.

It promoted the concept of change as an ongoing business model, rather than a sporadic event; it told managers that they needed to focus on continuous learning in order to preserve business competitiveness. In Leadership and the new science…the findings are also innovative as they seek to explain a link between the new trends within the society based on the principles of biology, chaos theory and quantum physics. This approach is a daring one, which has been met with.