Supply Chain Management and the Challenge of Organizational Complexity — Methodological Considerations

Stig Johannessen ()
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Stig Johannessen: University College of Nord-Tröndelag (HINT)

A chapter in Research Methodologies in Supply Chain Management, 2005, pp 59-73 from Springer

Abstract: Summary The dominating organizational perspectives within supply chain management (SCM) are firmly based in a methodological position of holistic systems thinking. From this perspective, it is argued that activities in organizations are best understood and developed when seen as holistic systems, where the various subsystems and processes are seen to interact and constitute a whole. However, holistic systems thinking fails to provide convincing explanations for the change phenomena many people experience in logistics-oriented organizations. Recent organizational complexity research challenges the systems perspective and argues from an ontological position of radical process thinking. Organizational activity is described in terms of processes of local social interaction, creating further interaction and patterns of action with global effects. The causes and explanations are to be found in the experience of these processes and not in some kind of system. There are profound implications from this shift in methodological orientation for organizational research in SCM.

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Methodology; Systems Thinking; Radical Process Thinking; Organizational Complexity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-7908-1636-5_5

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DOI: 10.1007/3-7908-1636-1_5

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