“an agent may represent an individual, a project team, a division, or an entire organization. Agents have varying degrees of connectivity with other agents, through which information and resources can flow” a CAS is induced not by a single entity but rather by the simultaneous and parallel actions of agents within the system itself. Thus, a CAS is self-organizing and undergoes “a process …, whereby new emergent structures, patterns, and properties arise without being externally imposed on the system” (Goldstein, in Zimmerman et al. (1998, p. 270)) Consider, for example, the phenomenon of flocking birds. At first glance, one may be tempted to believe that the complex order observed in the flocking pattern is the result of either a predetermined plan or the result of unilateral control employed by the lead bird. In fact, flocking patterns emerge as part of the system’s self-organizing behavior. Individual birds behave according to simple rules that are enacted based on local information. Any individual bird determines speed and direction by flying toward the center of the flock, mimicking the velocity of the neighboring birds and staying a safe distance away from them. We also observe this self-organizing behavior in human systems, whereby simple behavior based on local information can, in the aggregate, lead to complex global behavior. Supply networks and complex adaptive systems: control versus emergenceJournal of Operations Management, Volume 19, Issue 3, May 2001, Pages 351-366Thomas Y. Choi, Kevin J. Dooley, Manus RungtusanathamEcosystems and the Biosphere as Complex Adaptive SystemsSimon A. Levin EcosystemsVol. 1, No. 5 (Sep. - Oct., 1998), pp. 431-436Published by: SpringerStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3658676
