On the Status of Boundaries, both Natural and Organizational: A Complex Systems Perspective

Contemporary science with its strong positivism tends to trivialize the nature of boundaries. Boundaries are supposedly real and our ability to recognize them as such is regarded as a straightforward exercise. This by-product is a direct result of science’s focus on the quantifiable and mathematizable (Goodwin, 2000). Given such a naïve belief in the (ontological) status of boundaries, it is easy to understand how some scientists can wholeheartedly buy into their models as true representations of what is. If absolute boundaries exist, then as scientists we have simply to map them and with a little mathematical manipulation “hey presto!”—we have true knowledge of the universe. Scientists aren’t the only ones who approach nature in such a black-and-white manner, however. We are all frequently guilty of unquestioningly accepting the efficacy of certain physical and conceptual boundaries that may be totally inappropriate for the context of interest. Managers cling on to organizational models that have far outlived their use and relevance; politicians dogmatically cling to ideologies that should have been put to rest many decades ago; employees at every level of organization naïvely assume that their view of the world is the “right” one. Decision makers often think that failure more often than not results from the bad implementation of their decisions. It is both interesting and