Affiliation

Royal Roads University, CAN

Biography

Alice MacGillivray consults in areas including leadership development and work in complex systems. She has a PhD in Human and Organizational Systems from Fielding Graduate University, where she is a Fellow with the Institute for Social Innovation. She works with several Royal Roads University programs, including Leadership Studies and Environment and Management.

Email not available

Articles

Can Sustainability Research Inform Leadership in Complex Systems?
Volume: 20, Issue 4

A review of "Digital Habitats: Stewarding Technologies for Communities" written by Etienne Wenger, Nancy White and John D. Smith, published by CPsquare ISBN 9780982503607 (2009)
Volume: 11, Issue 4

A review of "Managing Uncertainties in Networks: A Network Approach to Problem Solving and Decision Making" written by Joop Koppenjan and Erik-Hans Klijn, published by Routledge ISBN 9780415369411 (2004)
Volume: 10, Issue 2

Learning at the edge—Part 2: Scholar-practitioner reflections on boundaries
Volume: 9, Issue 4
This is the second segment of a two-part paper, which attempts to strengthen a bridge between theoretical and practical worlds by bringing information from organizations to complexity theorists. It is written as a boundary object to encourage further research, dialogue and conclusions. This paper focuses on one theme from complexity and new science literature: the theme of boundaries. A relatively new methodology, phenomenography, is used as an inductive method of inquiry to explore qualitatively different ways in which published authors and graduate students understand the related concepts of boundary, edge and periphery. These authors’ unsolicited views of the boundary concept ranged from micro to macro in scale, and from detached observation to personal activism in nature. This study suggests that boundaries are important areas for learning, growth, risk, and observation and repair of systemic challenges, and that they deserve further iterative or collaborative research in relation to complexity thinking.

Learning at the edge—Part 1:
Volume: 8, Issue 3
This paper focuses on one theme from complexity and new science literature: the theme of boundaries. It responds to requests from complexity theorists to bring organizational perspectives into dialogues about the use of complexity thinking by managers and leaders. The researcher has used phenomenographic analysis to explore published authors’ qualitatively different ways of understanding boundaries. These have been grouped into two major categories, and several subcategories. These authors believed that boundaries deserve attention, and that they can be actively managed for a range of benefits. These ways of understanding are interpreted through a model based on theoretical work by Etienne Wenger. This is the first part of a two-part paper that attempts to strengthen a bridge between theoretical and practical worlds, and to create a space for further research and dialogue.

A review of "Complexity and the Experience of Leading Organizations"
Volume: 8, Issue 2