Complex Interventions in Complex Systems: The Influence of Interdependencies on Turnaround Success

In this paper, I examine how interdependency pattern among the elements of complex systems influence the success of complex interventions. While prior scholars basing their research on complexity theory to investigate change in complex systems focused on continuous change, where the influence of managers is limited to the development of rules capable to keep a complex system at the “edge of chaos”, I shift the focus to those situations where complex systems failed to steadily operate at the edge of chaos and an intervention undertaken by managers becomes inevitably for the system to survive. To do so, I introduce the concept of complex interventions in complex social systems of health research to strategic management and define turnaround strategies as complex interventions into organizations. I propose that the three relative distribution pattern modularity, concentration and openness of interdependencies among complex systems build a pre-defined frame of the system towards complex interventions with the intention to change the organization to the better. Further, based on Ashby’s law, I propose that complex interventions into complex system are more likely to be successful if they absorb complexity of the system, by mirroring the interdependency pattern of the activities the organization is engaged in.