1. The Goldilocks of organizational behaviour
Advances in dynamic systems theory offers mathematical tools to examine chaos as an alternative explanation of
the processes of change and organizational development. These advances were introduced in management andorganizational literature by Cheng and Van de Ven (1996). Authors stated that a dynamic model is one in which
variables at a given time represent a function of the same variables at an earlier time. Nonlinearity presumes
feedback loops that vary in strength (loose or tight coupling) and direction (positive or negative) in time between
opposing forces or requests. Such nonlinear dynamic models are known to be dependent or sensitive to initial
conditions, the sensitivity meaning that small initial differences in variable’s trajectories may increase the
fluctuations in time, and as they move far from equilibrium they bifurcate (branching) in a variety of possible ways
resembling a chaotic decision tree. In a chaotic state the branching pathways cannot be predicted as they represent
newly spontaneously created structures emerging in an apparently random order. These chaotic processes own a
hidden order which is usually a relatively simple nonlinear system of dynamic relationships between only a few
variables (Eubank, S. and Farmer, D., 1990).