1.4 Organization Theory in a CyberSystemic World
The focus of this section is organisational theory related to organisational systems and operational closure...
The focus of this section is organisational theory related to organisational systems and operational closure. We propose this closure as a strategy to manage complexity in societal evolution through self-organisation. This closure sets the internal structure of organisational systems, which are not understood as linear input-output machines but as non-trivial machines (Von Foerster) controlling their internal operations i.e. the system is enabled through a coherent, closed network, of operations where ends are beginnings (circular causality); their operational closure is a powerful manager of the systems’ complexity. Organization theory should provide knowledge about the embodiment of these organizations; this embodiment is understood as the platform for organizational closure. The Viable System Model seems a first choice for related conceptual and case studies of organizational closure. Related to this model methodologies to study self-organisation, operational and organizational closure have been developed (Espejo’s Viplan Methodology). Non-equilibrium thermodynamics and quantum theory also provide methodologies for conceptual and quantitative investigation of operational closure. Quantum theory is already used in studies of psychic and social systems. These are all tools for studying organisations, and in this section we are inviting contributions for the theoretical and practical study of the embodiment of social systems.
Discussion points
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the scientific Tower of Babel (interdisciplinarity, differentiation of sciences; in the first place, in the context of cybernetic–sciences of control and adjacent sciences);
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centralization collapse (decentralization and networks, including systems of systems, distributed optimization, emergent intelligence, multi-agent systems, etc.);
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strategic behaviour (in all manifestations, including interest inconsistencies, goal-setting, reflexion and others);
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complexity damnation (including all aspects of complexity and nonlinearity of modern systems, as well as dimensionality damnation – big data and big control).