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CEOs have many different complexity approaches to choose from. The books reviewed in this Special Issue more or less define frequently obscure complexity science terms and give complexity science theories meanings more relevant to firms. Organization change methods leading toward emergence and empowerment are powerfully set forth. But in the founding issue of Emergence, one of us (McKelvey, 1999b) worried that “complexity science applied to management ” had all the earmarks of becoming just another management consulting fad, aimed at marketing personal skills and books. It could become just another ingredient in what Micklethwait and Wooldridge (1996) describe as management guru witch-doctoring. The record is clear over the past several decades—management ideas that do not become legitimized by resting on a foundation of quality research are quickly replaced by the next fad coming down the pike. Are complexity applications to firms vulnerable to or solidly past faddism?
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Maguire et al. (1999) studied this question.
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