I am investigating whether thinking about organisations as Complex
Adaptive Systems has anything to offer Cost Management theory and
practice. I've now recently come across the learning-org list and would be
interested if anyone was pursuing Cost Management research in learning
organisations. Traditional cost management is very cartesian; the sum of
the parts must always equal the whole. The root cause of cost is found by
analysis, breaking things apart. But the more we break them apart, the
more we lose the unique properties of the system. The challenge to cost
management in learning orgs is finding systemic cost drivers, not
systematic drivers. Activity-Based costing is useful, but is not enough.
It remains systematic.
Anyone out there doing the same? Would the list be interested
in my research?