Managing complexity: the challenges of the International Space Station program

Abstract

This study explores the varied challenges of managing complexity using the International Space Station (ISS) Program as an example of a complex, adaptive system. The paper begins by considering the program from the perspective of a evolutionary dialectic: with homoeostatic change as thesis, deterministic unpredictability as anti-thesis, and self-organization as the synthesis. The paper then examines the concept of self-organized criticality, considering the ISS Program's integrated and tiered team structure. The next section introduces bipolar variables confronted by employees adapting to and enacting this complex environment. Finally, we consider how organizational mindsets can entrench (or retrench) in this environment even in the face of dynamical change and how the ISS Program as a complex program has evolved and adapted to tolerate environmental ambiguity.