Normal chaos: A new research paradigm for understanding practice

Our key point is this: if practitioners always have to work in imperfect ways with imperfect tools, with imperfect understanding using imperfect information and within imperfect systems where the degree of control available is limited, how do they cope, managerially (i.e., deal effectively with the issues before them)? As researchers, we believe the answer to that question is not known and, accordingly, we recommend a new research paradigm for understanding practice more generally. We call that paradigm normal chaos.