Professor Eve Mitleton-Kelly

Prof. Eve Mitleton-Kelly is Director, Complexity Research Group, London School of Economics & Political Science, London, UK, and Visiting Professor at the Open University. EMK is a  Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Complex Systems, and she has had two careers -  one in the British Civil Service, Department of Trade & Industry (1967-1983) and another as an academic at the London School of Economics (since 1988).

EMK is founder and Director of the Complexity Research Programme at the London School of Economics; Fellow of the Royal Institution; member of the Scientific Advisory Board to the ‘Next Generation Infrastructures Foundation’, Delft University of Technology; on the Editorial Board  of the Journal of ‘Emergence: Complexity & Organisations’; was Coordinator of Links with Business, Industry and Government of the European Complex Systems Network of Excellence, Exystence (2003-2006); Director of the UK Complexity Society; and Executive Coordinator of SOL-UK (London) (Society for Organisational Learning) 1977-2008.

EMK is Policy Advisor to European and USA organisations, the European Commission, several UK Government Departments; Scientific Advisor to the Governments of Australia, Brazil, Canada, Netherlands, Singapore and UK in developing a framework of governance for government based on complexity theory. Please see ‘A New Synthesis of Public Administration: Serving in the 21st Century’, by Jocelyne Bourgon, P.C., O.C., McGill Queen’s University Press http://mqup.mcgill.ca/

EMK’s research has concentrated on the implications of the theories of complexity for organizations and specifically on strategy and policy development and on the creation of enabling environments to address apparently intractable problems in business and the public sector. She has led, and participated in projects addressing practical problems using complexity theory, funded by the EPSRC (Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council), ESRC (Economics & Social Sciences Research Council), AHRC (Art & Humanities Research Council), the European Commission, business and government, including: alignment between IT and the rest of the business; the reduction of problems associated with IT legacy systems; lack of organisational integration post-merger; project governance for a national project delivered locally by multiple partners for the Royal British Legion; a framework of governance for government with 6 Government Administrations; leadership in the National Health Service (UK), Defra, and many other organisations in the private and public sectors; sustainable development in communities, organizational learning, the emergence of new organizational forms, the ‘design’ of organizations, co-evolutionary sustainability, innovation in the private and public sector, diversity, art & complexity, disaster risk reduction in West African States, energy & climate change; relationship between policy and outcomes (Health & Safety Executive); uncertainty & risk in decision making for Local Government; and contingency planning related to evacuation following a major disaster.

EMK has developed a theory of complex social systems and an integrated methodology using both qualitative and quantitative tools and methods. The theory is being used for teaching at universities around the world, including three EPSRC-funded short courses at LSE, to train researchers; two courses at Beijing (Jan. 2010 & Apr. 2011) to train senior government officials; and short courses at Schumacher College, Devon, UK. Publications, incl. a book on corporate governance and complexity (2010) and the work of the LSE Complexity Group are on www.lse.ac.uk/complexity . A new volume, edited by EMK and based on the work of Socionical Partners, is forthcoming, to be published by Springer in 201. 

The LSE Complexity Group’s Research Partnters

The Group has been working with AstraZeneca, BT, BAe Systems, DWP (Dept. of Works & Pensions), Defra (Dept. for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs), Citibank (New York & London), GlaxoSmithKline, the Humberside TEC (Training & Enterprise Council), Legal & General, Ministry of Defence, Mondragon Cooperative Corporation (Basque Country), the UK National Health Service, Norwich Union Life, Rolls-Royce (Aerospace & Marine), Royal British Legion, Shell (International, Finance & Shell Internet Works), the World Bank (Washington DC) and several companies in the aerospace industry, to address practical complex problems. In the process it has developed a theory of complex social systems and an integrated methodology using both qualitative and quantitative tools and methods. The work of the LSE Complexity Group is at  www.lse.ac.uk/complexity