A Play of Four Arenas

Abstract

Today’s rapidly changing business environment makes organizations pay special attention to the functioning of their internal processes. Among other things, the processes of management development (MD) are expected to reflect better the new competitive reality, which is characterized by dynamism, connectivity, non-linearity and emergent properties. This article studies MD in the light of complex adaptive systems (CAS), and presents key ideas of a systems approach to MD. The article elaborates a framework that combines MD’s situational context, developmental guidelines derived from the CAS theory, and examples of relevant MD practices. The framework offers MD professionals a practical means to assess and strengthen MD’s role in business. Furthermore, directions for future research on systems-based MD are brought up.