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One striking feature of modern political and social development has been the construction of social systems encompassing more and more groups. The increase in social complexity, the authors of this volume contend, has reached a point where accepted concepts fail to describe social and political phenomena adequately. The studies in this book reevaluate traditional assumptions. Part One defines organized social complexity and discusses the effects of technological change. Part Two assesses national planning and systems analysis, approaches supposed to provide direct control over social matters. Part Three describes methodological aspects and research applications, and Part Four provides retrospective and prospective views of theories on social complexity.Originally published in 1975.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905

To what degree do the conceptions and ways of knowing available to us provide a confident basis for engaging the organizational world we confront? If there are shortfalls, in what aspects of these phenomena, how serious are they, and to what policy consequence? This essay addresses why anomalies and surprises might be expected—both due to the conditions facing contemporary public organizations and our modes of considering them. The final part offers injunctions that could inform initial exploration.

The HRO project is cast within a broader socio‐political context, by first, reviewing its practical origins, its conceptual/logical framework, and a summary of the project's provisional findings, including a brief observation about the importance of a 'culture of reliability.'Then some socio/political implications for HROs are explored as they assume the status of large technical systems (LTSs) and become quasi‐public institutions. This paper ends with a reflection on the challenges of institutional trustworthiness that confront HRO operators, managers, and overseers.

Practitioners & students of public organizations experience & observe network phenomena at a quickening pace in a wide variety of policy domains. The complexity of these phenomena raises questions about the adequacy of conceptual formulations of organizational & management relations -- rooted mainly in organization-centric assumptions -- as a basis for the understanding of this evolution. The implications of viewing public organizational networks (PONs) from three vantages of conceptual observation are explored, & variations in conceptual salience, theoretical interests, & insights regarding innovation as these vantages change are discussed. The challenges of PONs & innovation to the attainment of public trust & conflict & institutional constancy are presented in conclusion. 1 Figure, 97 References. Adapted from the source document.