Regarding the question, " Do individuals and groups have a cognitive
limitation in grasping complex systems?" I suggest you read John
Warfield's work. He has developed an index for complexity which
shows that what we are dealing with when we use the term is a
cognitive condition - not a condition of reality "on it's own".
What has something be complex in the world of business and
organisation is that many people are part of the whole, can see only
part of the whole, and are generating faster than a stable existent
will allow.
One of the implications of this is that a complex situation - with
the right lingusitic and display tools (Warfield has developed some
of these) - can be understood far better by group than by any
individual. (Before or after the group process.)
However, the nature of a complex adaptive system like an corporation
or any part of it, can never be fully understood. If it could, it
would be neither complex nor adaptive. The best that we can hope for
is that it be understood well enough to enable us to act
pragmatically to influence it positively. This is a key point that,
if we ignore, leads us astray and into minefields that will defeat
earlier good work.
-- Michael McMaster : Michael@kbdworld.com book cafe site : http://www.vision-nest.com/BTBookCafe "I don't give a fig for simplicity this side of complexity but I'd die for the simplicity on the other side of complexity." attributed to Chief Justice BrandiesLearning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>