Introduction to the JOTSC Special Issue on Leveraging Organizational Change and Knowledge Management to Address Environmental Complexity

Abstract

Claims that organizations are living through a period of unprecedented complexity are not new. Accordingly, scholars and practitioners are recognizing the challenges that originate from operating in increasingly complex and interconnected environments. Despite the relevant theoretical advances occurred in organizational and management studies as a consequence of such recognition, a full appreciation of how organizations deal with complex situations is still missing (Amagoh, 2008; Axeldrod & Cohen, 2000). Accordingly, this special issue aims to contribute to elucidate how organizations respond to environmental complexity through the activation of specific processes of organizational change and knowledge management. The special issue includes a set of articles presented in their preliminary version at the panel session ‘Organizational Change and Knowledge Management ’of theBusiness Systems Laboratory 3rd International Symposium ‘Advances in Business Management. Towards Systemic Approach, ’held in Perugia (Italy) in 2015. Albeit the included papers focus on diverse epistemological and theoretical perspectives, overall the complex system perspective significantly contributes to enlighten the researched topic. In detail, the first two articles tackle specific issues connected with the implementation of mechanisms, interaction contexts and atmospheres that can promote and smooth organizationalchange. The third and fourth articles embrace two high-level arguments related to the ethical approach that can support contemporary organizations involved in a complex environment, and the ‘organizational reference giving example’(i.e. the disciplinary matrix of the organizational activities) that cansupport managers and scholars in observing the organizational change over time.