Multi-Agent Systems (MASs) and Partial and Ordinary Differential Equations (PDEs and ODEs respectively) have often been employed by researchers to effectively model and simulate Complex Adaptive Systems (CASs). PDEs and ODEs are reduction based approaches which view the system globally and ignore any local interactions and processes. MASs are considered by many to be a better tool to model CASs, but have issues as well. Case in point, there is concern that present day MASs fail to capture the true essence of inter-cellular communication in a CAS. In this work we present a realistic and utilizable communication framework for inter-agent communication for a CAS simulation. We model the dynamic properties of the communication signals and show that our model is a realistic model for inter-cellular communication. We validate our system by modeling and simulating pattern formation in Dictyostelium discoideum, a unicellular organism. / Master of Science

The current research used grounded theory methodology (GTM) to construct a conceptualization of personal knowledge within a knowledge management (KM) perspective. The need for the current research was based on the use of just two categories of knowledge, explicit and tacit, within KM literature to explain diverse characteristics of personal knowledge. The construct of tacit knowledge has often been explicated and debated in KM literature. The debate over tacit knowledge arose from the complex epistemological roots of tacit knowing and the construct of tacit knowledge popularized by organizational knowledge creation theory. The ongoing debate over tacit knowledge in KM literature has shed little light on personal knowledge within a KM perspective. The current research set aside the debate over tacit knowledge and pursued the construct of personal knowledge from the perspective of the knower using GTM. Thirty-seven interviews were conducted with fourteen participants. Interviews were audio recorded and coding was accomplished with the qualitative data analysis software MAXQDA. A total of eight categories were identified. These were organized into two groups. The core category being overwhelmed represented the absence of personal knowledge. The categories questioning self, seeking help, and microthinking fit under being overwhelmed. Together these categories were inverse indicators because they all decreased as knowledge acquisition progressed. The core category being confident represented the presence of personal knowledge. The categories remembering, multitasking, and speed fit under being overwhelmed. Together these categories were direct indicators because they all increased as knowledge acquisition progressed. Three significant conclusions were drawn from the current research. These conclusions led to the conceptualization of personal knowledge from a KM perspective. The first significant conclusion was the conceptualization of a process of knowing as Integrated Complexity: From Overwhelmed to Confident (ICOC). The second significant conclusion was personal knowing as first-person epistemology is a universally lived experience that includes commitments to internal and external requirements as well as a bias toward integration. The third significant conclusion was personal knowledge can be viewed as a complex adaptive system. Finally, the current research concluded that personal knowledge within a KM perspective is a complex adaptive system maintained through acts of first-person epistemology.

Emergency response team (ERT) member characteristics that contribute to High Reliability performance during patient care resuscitation events or other Critical Incident Management Situations are poorly understood. Findings from this study describe individual characteristics that experienced interprofessional ERT members perceive as contributing to High Reliability performance within the critical incident management context. This study supports the need for interprofessional research about emergency response teams’ High Reliability in hospital-based settings. ERT High Reliability, or “better than expected” team performance has been linked to overall patient care and safety. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe individual team member characteristics that contribute to High Reliability performance of ERT members and the overall emergency response team in a naturalistic setting during Critical Incident Management Situations. Using a qualitative descriptive design, data collection included participant observations, field notes, and interviews. Narrative data were audio-taped, transcribed and coded using Ethnograph v6©. Data content were analyzed thematically using inductive interpretive methods. Two major domains derived from the data were Self-Regulation and Whole-Team Regulation. The overarching theme, Orchestrating High Reliability at the Edge of Chaos, encompassed characteristics contributing to High Reliability performance of the ERT during Critical Incident Management Situations.

Thesis (Ph.D.), Faculty of Humanities, School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, 2009 / People who hold doctoral degrees are considered valuable national resources able to produce knowledge to address pressing problems, and important sources of labour for the higher education sector. However, in 2006, only 1100 people graduated with doctoral degrees in South Africa. This limits the potential for research and improvements in higher education. In addition, 618 of those graduates were white, making it difficult to address equity concerns. Within the higher education sector there are debates about how to increase enrolments in doctoral education and the best way to run PhD programmes for effective learning, high quality research results and for efficiency. But there is little South African-based empirical research into what makes people undertake PhDs, how the programmes work and what learning and knowledge result. This study explores how different stakeholders – national and institutional policymakers, academic staff and doctoral people – understand the PhD; how these understandings influence the practice of doctoral education; and how different practices affect the PhD experience and the learning and knowledge produced. The primary research question I address is: “How do existing models and pedagogies of doctoral programmes shape the learning of doctoral people and the outcomes of doctoral programmes in South Africa?” The origins of the Doctor of Philosophy degree are often traced back to the nineteenth century reforms of German universities when the idea emerged that all scholars should be actively involved in research. But this is a simplistic view. By examining the evolution of the PhD in greater depth, it becomes clear that it has undergone continuous change and has always served both the high-minded pursuit of knowledge and the more prosaic pursuit of skills for employment. The literature reflects ongoing tension between the scholarly view of the PhD as knowledge generation by an emerging scholar, and the labour market view of the PhD as developing high-level research skills. In the South African context both of these views can be observed, but I also identified a view of the PhD as ongoing personal development through an engagement with knowledge. The three views of the PhD are underpinned by different discourses which inform the practice of doctoral education. In South Africa, the traditional model of individual supervision dominates, and it varies by discipline, department and supervisor. But patterns of practice can be discerned and I identify four of these and discuss how supervisors construct their individual supervision practice. Doctoral education is also a function of the people who do PhDs. Much of the research undertaken in the overdeveloped world focuses on younger people who are starting out on academic careers. However, in South Africa, many people doing PhDs are older and midway through careers which are often not academic. This leads me to propose a model of intersecting contexts, as an alternative to McAlpine and Norton‟s nested context model of doctoral education, which more accurately reflects the local situation. I discuss the PhD experience and make use of the intersecting contexts model to develop the notion of congruence between the PhD, the contexts and the PhD person with more positive experiences being related to higher degrees of congruence. Finally, I consider how the outcomes of doctoral education, the learning and knowledge which result, relate to the expectations of the different stakeholders. The research took the form of a qualitative study with a multiple case-study design employing theoretical replication. I examined doctoral education in four academic units at three South African universities with the units selected to represent different disciplines. All four units were in previously advantaged universities from the English-speaking tradition and all were successfully producing PhD graduates. These rich pictures of how doctoral education takes place contribute empirical evidence to current debates about the PhD in South Africa. At a conceptual level I identify the competing discourses about what a PhD is. I provide a more nuanced understanding of the practice of doctoral education within the overarching model of individual supervision. The intersecting contexts model provides a way to understand the expectations and circumstances of doctoral people and the notion of congruence illuminates their varied experiences. Finally, the study confirms that the outcomes of doctoral education, in terms of learning and knowledge generated, meet at least some of the expectations of policy-makers, supervisors and people who do PhDs.

Thesis advisor: Patrick J. McQuillan / In the 2007-2008 school year, the author conducted a collaborative case study (Stake, 2000) with the goal of discovering and describing "emergent learning" in three high school classrooms. Emergent learning, defined as the acquisition of new knowledge by an entire group when no individual member of the group possessed it before, is implied by the work of many theorists working on an educational analog of a natural phenomenon called a complex adaptive system. Complex adaptive systems are well networked collectives of agents that are non-linear, bounded and synergistic. The author theorized that classes that maximized the features of complex adaptive systems could produce emergent learning (a form of synergy), and that there was a continuum of this complexity, producing a related continuum of emergence. After observing a co-curricular jazz group, an English class, and a geometry class for most of one academic year, collecting artifacts and interviewing three students and a teacher from each class, the author determined that there was indeed a continuum of complexity. He found that the actively complex nature of the Jazz Rock Ensemble produced an environment where emergence was the norm, with the ensemble producing works of music, new to the world, with each performance. The English section harnessed the chaotic tendencies of students to optimize cognitive dissonance and frequently produce emergent learning, while the mathematics section approached the learning process in a way that was too rigidly linear to allow detectable emergence to occur. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

The purpose of this thesis was to explore how microstate human interactions produce macro level self-organization and emergence in a supply disruption scenario, as well as discover factors and typical human behaviour that bring about disruptions. This study argues that the complex adaptive system’s view of complexity is most suited scholarly foundation for this research enquiry. Drawing on the dissipative structure based explanation of emergence and self-organization in a complex adaptive system, this thesis further argues that an energy gradient between the ongoing and designed system conditions, known as adaptive tension, causes supply chains to self-organize and emerge. This study adopts a critical realist ontology operationalized by a qualitative case research and grounded theory based analysis. The data was collected using repertory grid interviews of 22 supply chain executives from 21 firms. In all 167 cases of supply disruptions were investigated. Findings illustrate that agent behaviours like loss of trust, over ambitious pursuit, use of power and privilege, conspiring against best practices and heedless performance were contributing to disruption. Impacted by these behaviours, supply chains demonstrated impaired disruption management capabilities and increased disruption probability. It was also discovered that some of these system patterns and microstate agent behaviours pushed the supply chains to a zone of emergent complexity where these networks self-organized and emerged into new structures or embraced changes in prevailing processes or goals. A conceptual model was developed to explain the transition from micro agent behaviour to system level self-organization and emergence. The model described alternate pathways of a supply chain under adaptive tension. The research makes three primary research contributions. Firstly, based upon the theoretical model, this research presents a conceptualization of supply chain emergence and self-organization from dissipative structures and adaptive tension based view of complexity. Secondly, it formally introduces and validates the role of behavioural and cognitive element of human actions in a supply chain scenario. Lastly, it affirms the complex adaptive system based conceptualization of supply chain networks. These contributions succeed in providing organizations with an explanation for observed deviations in their operations performance using a behavioural aspect of human agents.

<p>There is a common belief amongst those who are involved in projects that as project complexity increases the difficulty to manage a project increases and thus the probability to succeed in project completion considerably decreases. Perception of complexity in a project usually refers to common criteria from traditional project management thinking such as the scale of the project; cost; duration; and the degree of risk to its owner. However, whether a project is perceived to be complex or not may not be purely a product of the size of the project. It may also be derived from the person’s experience in projects. The aim of this study is to identify attributes of perception of project complexity and observe whether experience is also a determining factor in perceiving a project as complex. The research is based on the assumption that a complex project may exhibit behaviour similar to complex adaptive system. This study proposes a theoretical framework based on projects understood as complex adaptive systems. A project experience matrix is developed which will be useful to help link degree and type of experience to perceptions of project complexity.</p><p>This study employs a comparative study between two cases to explore and compare the perception of complexity in each case. Qualitative and quantitative data were obtained through semi-structured interview and questionnaires, then analysed accordingly. The outcomes of this research attempted to find answers to the following questions: How do project managers and team members perceive a project as complex (project complexity)?” In answering this question we explored how project managers and team members perceived project complexity. The major question above was elaborated by some minor specific questions. These are: Which attributes of complex adaptive systems are attributed by project managers and team members to project complexity? Is project experience a determining factor to the perception of project complexity? Based on our sample we found no significant differences between attributes of complex adaptive systems and perception of project complexity; no significant association between depth and context of experience and perception of project complexity. We also found no significant differences between the Chinese and Indonesian samples.</p>

There is a common belief amongst those who are involved in projects that as project complexity increases the difficulty to manage a project increases and thus the probability to succeed in project completion considerably decreases. Perception of complexity in a project usually refers to common criteria from traditional project management thinking such as the scale of the project; cost; duration; and the degree of risk to its owner. However, whether a project is perceived to be complex or not may not be purely a product of the size of the project. It may also be derived from the person’s experience in projects. The aim of this study is to identify attributes of perception of project complexity and observe whether experience is also a determining factor in perceiving a project as complex. The research is based on the assumption that a complex project may exhibit behaviour similar to complex adaptive system. This study proposes a theoretical framework based on projects understood as complex adaptive systems. A project experience matrix is developed which will be useful to help link degree and type of experience to perceptions of project complexity. This study employs a comparative study between two cases to explore and compare the perception of complexity in each case. Qualitative and quantitative data were obtained through semi-structured interview and questionnaires, then analysed accordingly. The outcomes of this research attempted to find answers to the following questions: How do project managers and team members perceive a project as complex (project complexity)?” In answering this question we explored how project managers and team members perceived project complexity. The major question above was elaborated by some minor specific questions. These are: Which attributes of complex adaptive systems are attributed by project managers and team members to project complexity? Is project experience a determining factor to the perception of project complexity? Based on our sample we found no significant differences between attributes of complex adaptive systems and perception of project complexity; no significant association between depth and context of experience and perception of project complexity. We also found no significant differences between the Chinese and Indonesian samples.

The purpose of this thesis was to explore how microstate human interactions produce macro level self-organization and emergence in a supply disruption scenario, as well as discover factors and typical human behaviour that bring about disruptions. This study argues that the complex adaptive system’s view of complexity is most suited scholarly foundation for this research enquiry. Drawing on the dissipative structure based explanation of emergence and self-organization in a complex adaptive system, this thesis further argues that an energy gradient between the ongoing and designed system conditions, known as adaptive tension, causes supply chains to self-organize and emerge. This study adopts a critical realist ontology operationalized by a qualitative case research and grounded theory based analysis. The data was collected using repertory grid interviews of 22 supply chain executives from 21 firms. In all 167 cases of supply disruptions were investigated. Findings illustrate that agent behaviours like loss of trust, over ambitious pursuit, use of power and privilege, conspiring against best practices and heedless performance were contributing to disruption. Impacted by these behaviours, supply chains demonstrated impaired disruption management capabilities and increased disruption probability. It was also discovered that some of these system patterns and microstate agent behaviours pushed the supply chains to a zone of emergent complexity where these networks self-organized and emerged into new structures or embraced changes in prevailing processes or goals. A conceptual model was developed to explain the transition from micro agent behaviour to system level self-organization and emergence. The model described alternate pathways of a supply chain under adaptive tension. The research makes three primary research contributions. Firstly, based upon the theoretical model, this research presents a conceptualization of supply chain emergence and self-organization from dissipative structures and adaptive tension based view of complexity. Secondly, it formally introduces and validates the role of behavioural and cognitive element of human actions in a supply chain scenario. Lastly, it affirms the complex adaptive system based conceptualization of supply chain networks. These contributions succeed in providing organizations with an explanation for observed deviations in their operations performance using a behavioural aspect of human agents.

Modeling or simulating Complex Adaptive Systems (CASs) is both important and challenging. As the name suggests, CASs are systems consisting of large numbers of interacting adaptive compartments. They are studied across a wide range of disciplines and have unique properties. They model such systems as multicellular organisms, ecosystems, social networks, and many more. They are complex, in the sense that they are dynamical, nonlinear, and heterogeneous systems that cannot be simply scaled up/down. However, they are self-organized, in the sense that they can evolve into specific structures/patterns without guidance from outside sources. Modeling/Simulating CASs is challenging, not only because of the high complexity, but also because of the difficulty in explaining the underlying mechanism behind self-organization. The goal of this research is to provide a modeling framework as well as a simulation platform to advance the study of CASs. We argue that there are common principles behind self-organization processes of different systems across different domains. We explore, analyze, and perform experiments into these principles. We propose and implement modeling templates such as short-term and long-term adaptivity. We incorporate techniques from systems theory, employing computing paradigms, including multi-agent system and asynchronous message passing. We also consider an application from the biological domain to model and simulate under our framework, treating it as a CAS for validation purposes. / Ph. D.