Vancouver, B.C. Canada

The Tornado Effect: when Organizational Systems Collide

What happens when opposing forces collide in today's chaotic organization? Complex systems clash with the fury of dark, stormy twisters. They evoke images of a tornado trail left by the 1960's social revolution when men and women protested in mass numbers against racism, discrimination, poverty, the Vietnam War, and a Pandora Box of unsolved social injustice issues. What do the present sinister forces mean? Many theorists whisper of a violent tsunami ahead as the effects of globalization, global warming, and an increasingly violent society robs the earth of its environmental security. Systems theorists agree that we are experiencing one of the most profound, disruptive paradigm shifts in human history. What are its symptoms? Self-reinforcing behavioral feedback cycles are easily identified. Tracking them becomes more complex. This paper argues that the tornado phenomenon is a strange war against flaws in existing organizations. On this surreal landscape, winners have not yet emerged. Although organizations display a brilliant survival resilience, the triumph of human emotion, responsibility toward humanity and its natural habitat have not kept pace with the dizzying accumulation of wealth, advanced technology, and a slow, systematic planetary destruction. Although humans are part of Nature, organizations for the past five-thousand years have not mirrored natural law but rather an organized pyramid designed to fail. Indeed, the very mechanical, violent nature of our capitalistic society has created a frightening tornado pendulum effect played out in our workplace. An escape is not yet in sight.