Ordo Ab Chao? Complexity and Its Implications

• Date: 01 November 2019
• Author: R. Paul Battaglio,Jeremy L. Hall
• Published date: 01 November 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13128

Ordo Ab Chao? Complexity and Its Implications 807

Some of the topics covered in this issue—

for example, tornadoes, cyberattacks, and

leadership—led us to think critically about

how public administrators manage under chaos.

The current state of politics in the United States and

abroad makes this topic an increasingly valid one for

reflection and academic inquiry. Not surprisingly,

PAR led the way in thinking critically about managing

under “rapidly changing” environments in the 1989

piece “Nonequilibrium Theory and Its Implications

for Public Administration” by L. Douglas Kiel. Kiel

deftly navigates the new current scientific worldview

that is now more than ever characterized by instability

and disorder after some 20 years. Referencing the post-

Simon world of incrementalism, Kiel (1989) asserts:

While incremental models of change focus

on piecemeal or adaptive adjustment,

nonequilibrium theory may afford insight

into those instances when relatively rapid

change leads to genuinely novel configurations.

Nonequilibrium theory may thus serve as a

complement to incremental models of change

by providing a more complete view of the

entirety of evolutionary processes in systems

relevant to public administration. (544–45)

Kiel (1989) suggests that the result is a new form

of organized complexity which demands that

entrepreneurial approaches confront organizational

and administrative dynamics in public administration

(544). He then leaves us with three propositions for

future research that frame this editorial. The first

proposition states, “Public organizations experiencing

economic resource expansion are more likely to

engage in symmetry breaks and discontinuous

change than are public organizations experiencing

economic cutbacks” (549). Robinson, Pudlo, and

Wehde (2019) examine the use of social media

and how information is shared during emergency

weather events (i.e., tornadoes). While seemingly

unrelated to the proposition at hand, their findings

have implications for how such mediums are used in

recovery efforts—an often financially chaotic period

that is more likely than not typified by “instability

and symmetry breaking actions” (Kiel 1989, 549).

The authors suggest that social media has become a

powerful tool in the response and recovery phases by

spreading information to disaster victims, fighting

rumors, fundraising, and organizing volunteers.

Kiel’s (1989) second proposition states that “Public

organizations historically using more flexible

arrangements and structures experience shorter

periods of chaos following symmetry-breaking

activities than public organizations using more

rigid structures” (p. 549). Interestingly, complexity

theory typically suggests that strategic arrangements

within organizations tend to be cumbersome for

large organizations and fruitful only for routine or

mundane organizations. However, George, Walker,

and Monster (2019) suggest that such thinking about

strategic planning based on arguments of logical

incrementalism and complexity theory is problematic.

Their findings suggest that strategic planning

is far from harmful but is rather a particularly

potent heuristic for organizational effectiveness in

contemporary organizations.

Kiel’s (1989) third proposition suggests, “The level of

employee commitment to organization renewal will

determine the duration of the period of chaos prior to

effective reorganization” (p. 549). Two of the articles in

this issue find this proposal important in the ever-fluid

world of technology. In a first-of its-kind nationwide

cybersecurity survey of local governments in the

United States, Norris et al. (2019) demonstrate that

these governments are under constant or near-constant

cyberattack, yet on average, they practice cybersecurity

poorly. A major impediment to improving

cybersecurity practices in local governments are low

levels of awareness of and support for cybersecurity

and a lack of funding for it. Given that cybersecurity

threats are constantly evolving, adapting to these

changes will necessitate a constant commitment from

Jeremy L. Hall

University of Central Florida

Ordo Ab Chao? Complexity and Its Implications

R. Paul Battaglio

The University of Texas at Dallas

Editorial

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 79, Iss. 6, pp. 807–809. © 2019 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13128.