identity-difference thinking

Identity-difference thinking is complex responsive processes thinking, complexity thinking, from a transformative causality perspective. Identity and difference refer to the paradoxical nature of simultaneous stability and change in organization, with identity referring to the stability or continuity of the perpetual recreation of the same identity and simultaneously the difference in that identity from changes brought about by the complex responsive processes.

From the complex responsive process view, rather than the systemic perspective, an organization, as a whole, is never complete, it is under perpetual construction.

The absent whole is in the parts and emerges from the parts. Identity emerges from the parts. In the case of human organizations, a person's identity arises and co-develops with the collective identity of the organization.

Identity is continuously evolving and changing -- there is both the possibility of sameness, or continuity, and the potential for transformation at the same time.

For more discussion of identity-difference thinking and transformative causality, see organization.