3.2.1 Complex Responsive Processes of
Relating
Organizations operate in a complex environment,
which is characterized by emergence, nonlinearity,
and self-organization (Oukharijane et al., 2019). In
organization science, the organization, as the locus of
attention, has been studied as a Complex Adaptive
System (CAS), where micro-dynamics of local
interactions between the organizational actors result
in global patterns. A MAPE-K
ext
control cycle is often
situated in this organizational context. Although this
approach distinguishes the several steps of
complexity, the single organizational actor is
constituted as a rule-driven agent (Macintoch,
MacLean, 2001). Before, we referred to Nurcan who
states that an adaptive process should focus on an
action-oriented agent. However, the full range of
human experiences is hardly captured while the
environment is perceived as social and complex
patterns, in which behavior of a human actor is both
physical and cognitive. Complex intelligence, where
knowledge is created out of social interaction,
includes this human factor, but lacks a suitable
integration with the idea of CAS. This has been
identified by Stacey et al as Complex Responsive
Processes of Relating (CRP) (Stacey, 2003), where
activity of actors is influenced by the behavior of
other actors, individuals, or groups. CRP, however, is
taking both perspectives on human interaction and
emergence into consideration (Stacey, Griffin, 2005).
According to Homan ( (Homan, 2016), p. 495),
“the complex responsive process perspective does not
assume the [agents] to be more or less mechanistic
entities (automatons) reacting in a rule-driven fashion
to their neighbors, but endows the [agent] with
thoughts, reflections, emotions, anxieties, ambitions,
socialization, history, political games, spontaneity,
unpredictability, and uncertainty, also understanding
(human) interactions with others as intrinsic power
relations”. In the CRP setting, actors will search for
others to create a critical mass or are complementary
in capabilities or skills to overcome uncertainty.
These groups are formed around common themes,
which are shared, repeated, and endure in its values,
beliefs, traditions, habits, routines, and procedures
(Stacey, 2003).
From the Social Feedback Theory (Banisch et al.,
2020) we learned that the behavior of the agent is
influenced by the group the agent belongs to, from
now identified as trust groups. Agents perceive their
environment through the lens of the group and act,
accordingly, based on its dominant logic (Bose et al.,
2017). Gergen describes this behavior as social
constructionism (Gergen, 1999). According to
Gergen, relationships in the group and the reality of
group members are socially constructed and are
limited by culture, history, and human embeddedness
in the physical world. Not the individual mind but the
relationship becomes the main driver for dynamics.
The gesture and response dynamics in group activities
are triggered by environmental artifacts and lead to
the application and creation of patterns and the
disclosure of new artifacts to the environment, which
is, as Stacey states, the true source of knowledge
creation (Stacey, 2001). So, in the CRP theory, to
understand the dynamics of a system, one should
focus on the interaction of actors in groups instead of
individual behavior (Stacey, 2003).
In the MAPE-K
ext
model the focus is set on a
mechanistic control loop, as it originated from
cybernetics. However, the MAPE-K
ext
model is
applicable in closed systems with clear constraints
and is based on simplified models of reality, which do
not represent the living present. When applied to a
social system, the subjective pole is missing as agent
specific considerations are only partly taken into
account. By adding human behavior to the model, the
inter-agent dynamics will change, as the closed
system is opened, and the process becomes subjective
to the adjacent-possible with enabling constraints
(Kaufmann, 2016).
By adding the inter-agent dynamics from the CRP
theory to MAPE-K
ext
we could increase the learning
capabilities of each agent and spread knowledge
between trust groups more quickly.
Figure 2: MAPE-K
ext
with CRP exchange integration.
In this research the feasibility of CRP in the MAPE-
K
ext
cycle is developed and assessed in simulated
business processes. This results in a cyber-physical
social model and will be identified as MAPE-K
ext
CRP.
3.2.2 Integration in a BPMS Engine
A business process with a MAPE-K
ext
CRP control
cycle can be modelled in BPMN. Also, it is possible
to use these BPMN flows in a simulation environment