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Complex OD

 

Evaluating Performance in a CAS
April 30, 1998

 

Glenda H. Eoyang, Ph.D. (c)
Chaos Limited
50 East Golden Lake Road
Circle Pines, MN 55014
Fax 612-379-3924
Eoyang@chaos-limited.com
Thomas H. Berkas, Ph.D.
Search Institute
700 3rd Avenue South Suite 210
Minneapolis, MN 55415-1138
TomB@Search-Institute.org

Abstract

Evaluation is a central issue in all organizations. Many standard evaluation tools, techniques and methods rely on basic assumptions about linear organizational dynamics (predictability, low dimensionality, system closure, stability and equilibration). Some of these assumptions are not valid when a system enters the regime of a complex adaptive system (CAS). New strategies are required to evaluate human systems as CASs. New tools, techniques and methods must integrate assumptions about the dynamical nature of the CAS. This paper summarizes the characteristics of CASs from an organizational perspective. It identifies properties of an evaluation system that are consistent with the nature of a CAS and describes evaluation tools and techniques that promise more effective evaluation of human CASs. Finally, it outlines the role of the evaluator in a CAS.

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