Abstract
Bureaucracies in the Weberian mould, whether of the state or corporate type, are rational-legal structures organized to deliver order, stability and predictability. Early developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) appeared set to deliver such an outcome. Yet the new economy turns out to be more ‘distributed’ than had originally been expected. What is the nature of the challenge that this poses for bureaucracies? To address this question, the paper first presents a conceptual framework, the Information-Space or I-Space, which allows us to explore the relationship between how knowledge is structured and how it flows within and between populations of agents. The paper then examines what cultural and institutional challenges the new ICTs pose for both state and corporate bureaucracies, confronted as they are with the complexities of an increasingly distributed social order.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ashby, R.W. (1956). An Introduction to Cybernetics, London: Methuen.
Bennett, C. (1999). Quantum information theory, in A. Hey (ed.) Feynman and Computation: Exploring the Limits of Computers, MA, USA: Perseus Books.
Boisot, M. (1995). Information Space: A Framework for Learning in Organizations, Institutions and Culture, London: Routledge.
Boisot, M. (1998). Knowledge Assets. Securing Competitive Advantage in the Information Economy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Boisot, M. and Child, J. (1988). The Iron Law of Fiefs: Bureaucratic Failure and the Problem of Governance in the Chinese Economic Reforms, Administrative Science Quarterly 33: 507–527.
Boisot, M. and Child, J. (1996). From Fiefs to Clans: Explaining China's Emerging Economic Order, Administrative Science Quarterly 41(4): 600–628.
Boisot, M. and Child, J. (1999). Organizations as adaptative Systems in Complex Environments: The Case of China, Organization Science 10: 237–252.
Boisot, M. and Li, Y. (Forthcoming), Organizational versus Market Knowledge: From Concrete Embodiment to Abstract Representation, Journal of Bioeconomics.
Boisot, M. and Li, Y. (2005). Codification, Abstraction, and Firm Differences: A Cognitive Information-based Perspective, Journal of Bioeconomics 7: 309–334.
Cilliers, P. (1998). Complexity and Postmodernism: Understanding Complex Systems, Routledge: London.
Coase, R. (1937). The Nature of the Firm, Economica NS 4.
Cohen, I.B. (1985). Revolution of Science, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Cowan, G. (1994). Conference Opening Remarks, in G. Cowan, D. Pines and D. Meltzer (eds.) Complexity: Metaphors, Models, and Reality, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Chaitin, G.J. (1974). Information – Theoretic Computational Complexity, IEEE Transactions, Information Theory 20.pp 10–15.
Chandler, A. (1962). Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Chandler, A.D. (1977). The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press at Harvard University Press.
Child, J. (1972). Organizational Structure, Environment and Performance: The Role of Strategic Choice, Sociology 6: 1–22.
Donnithorne, A. (1981). China's Economic System, London: Hurst.
Dooley, K. and Van de Ven, A. (1999). Explaining Complex Organizational Dynamics, Organization Science 10: 358–372.
Dretske, F. (1981). Knowledge and the Flow of Information, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Dupuy, J.P. (1992). Intoduction aux Sciences Sociales: Logique des Phenoménes Collectifs, Paris: Ellipses.
Edelman, G. and Tononi, G. (2000). A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination, New York: Basic Books.
Eisenstein, E. (1983). The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Epstein, J. and Axtell, R. (1996). Growing Artificial Societies: Social Sciences from the Bottom Up, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Evans, P. and Wuster, T.S. (2000). Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy, Boston: Havard University Press.
Freeman, W. (2000). Neurodynamics: An Exploration of Mesoscopic Brain Dynamics, London: Springer-Verlag.
Gell-Mann, M. (1994). Complex Adaptive Systems, in G. Cowan, D. Pines and D. Meltzer (eds.) Complexity: Metaphors, Models, and Reality, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Goodman, D. (1994). The Politics of Regionalism: Economic Development, Conflict and Negotiation, in D. Goodman and G. Segal (eds.) China Deconstructs: Politics, Trade and Regionalism, London: Routledge.
Goody, J. (1986). The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gouldner, A. (1954). Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy, Gencoe, IL: The Free Press.
Hahn, V. and Chater, N. (1997). Knowledge, Concepts and Categories, in Sloman, S., and Rips, L., (eds.) Concepts and Similarity, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Hicks, J. (1939). Value and Capital: An Inquiry into Some Fundamental Principles of Economic Theory, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hill, C. (1968). The Intellectual Origins of the Royal Society – London or Oxford, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 23: 144–156.
Himmelfarb, G. (2004). The Roads to Modernity: The British, French, and American Enlightenments, New York: Vintage Books.
Hurst, D. (1995). Crisis and Renewal: Meeting the Challeng of Organizational Change, Boston MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Kauffman, S. (1993). The Origins of Order, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Kolgomorov, A. (1965). Three Approaches for Defining the Concept of Information, Information Transmission 1: 3–11.
Landes, D. (1999). The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some are so Rich and Some Are so Poor, New York: WW Norton and Co.
Langton, C. (1992). Artificial Life, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Lloyd, S. (2005). Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos, London: Jonathan Cape.
Marris, R. (1964). The Economic Theory of ‘Managerial’ Capitalism, London: MacMillan.
Mokyr, J. (2002). The Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
North, D. and Weingast, B. (1989). The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in 17th Century England, Journal of Economic History 4: 803–832.
Nove, A. (1977). The Soviet Economic System, London: George Allen and Unwin.
Ott, E., Grebogi, J. and Yorke, J. (1990). Controlling Chaos, Physical Review Letters 64: 2296–2299.
Pollard, S. (1965). The Genesis of Modern Management: A Study of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, Middlesex: Penguin Books.
Prietula, M., Carley, K. and Gasser, L. (1998). Simulating Organizations: Computational Models of Institutions and Groups, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Prigogine, I. (1980). From Being to Becoming: Time and Complexity in the Physical Sciences, New York: WH Freeman and Co.
Redding, S.G. (1990). The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Rusnock, A. (1997). Quantification, Precision and Accuracy: Determinations of Populations in the Ancien Regime, in M.N. Wise (ed.) The Values of Precision, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Shapin, S. (1994). A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth Century England, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Sipser, M. (1997). Introduction to the Theory of Computation, Boston: PWS Publishing Company.
Steinfeld, E.S. (1998). Forging Reform in China: The Fate on State-Owned Industry, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Taylor, M. (2001). The Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network Culture, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Thomas, C., Kaminska-Labbé, R. and McKelvey, B. (2005). Managing the MNC and the exploration/exploitation dilema: from static balance to dynamic oscillation, in G. Szulanski, Y. Doz and J. Porac (eds.) Advances in Strategic Management: Expanding Perspectives on the Strategy Process, Amsterdam: Elsevier, p 22.
Tönnies, F. (1955). Community and Association, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Waldrop, M.M. (1992). Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Weber, M. (1951). The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism, New York: The Free Press.
Williamson, O. (1975). Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications, New York: The Free Press.
Williamson, O.E. (1985). The Economic Institutions of Capitalism: Firms, Markets, Rational Contracting, New York: The Free Press.
Zurek, W. (1990). Algorithmic Information Content, Church-Turing Thesis, Physical Entropy, and Maxwell's Demon, in W. Zurek (ed.) Complexity, Entropy and the Physics of Information, Redwood City, CA: Addison-Wesley.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Boisot, M. Moving to the edge of chaos: bureaucracy, IT and the challenge of complexity. J Inf Technol 21, 239–248 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jit.2000079
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jit.2000079