A complex adaptive system is a system with many interacting parts that can affect other systems within a company. Nonlinear relationships mean small changes can have large effects. Feedback may not apply to a single department and can make fixing tasks difficult.
A complex adaptive system is one that has many different types of parts, with components that can interact with or affect many other systems. While a complex system might be thought of as a process that an individual does not understand, this is not true. A complex adaptive system generally defines a system with a large number of elements; the interactions of the elements influence many other systems within a company; and there are intermediate stages between each stage and the interaction in a process. An example of such a system would be the manufacturing process of a company that produces many types of goods. This complex system can affect many parts of a business.
There is generally no set number of elements that can make up a complex adaptive system, although some individuals may define a minimum amount. These individual elements or actions can span across different types of departments in a company. For example, the manufacturing department in a company has a complex system that affects reception, production, accounting, and sales, among others. Each activity within these departments can be a set of activities that constitute at least one or more complex adaptive systems. Many people often have an involvement in order to complete individual tasks in the system.
Relationships within a complex adaptive system can be nonlinear, meaning that a small change can have large effects on the overall system. In some cases, a company may make a small change to the system without considering all the intended and unintended consequences. The result is a major change or effect imposed on the complex system which may not be for the better. Owners and managers are typically the people responsible for managing the change associated with complex system decisions. Unintended consequences can have significant detrimental effects on a company’s business processes.
The feedback obtained from a complex adaptive system may not apply to a single department or environment. The result is information gathered by the system that pertains to more than one department of activity within the process. In some cases, this can make fixing tasks a bit difficult as there is no simple solution to a problem in the system. Other times, the feedback collected may not actually be related to the initial issue that information was requested about in the first place. This continues the process of a complex adaptive system and its difficulty in assigning boundaries.
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