Organizations

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. The experimental and social arche of organizations

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 31-31

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3. Introducing Organizations as Social Systems Conducting Experiments

   1. Introducing Organizations as Social Systems Conducting Experiments

      • Jan Achterbergh, Dirk Vriens

      Pages 1-29

4. The experimental and social arche of organizations

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 31-31

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   2. The Experimental Arche: Ashby’s Cybernetics

      • Jan Achterbergh, Dirk Vriens

      Pages 33-73

   3. The Experimental Arche Continued: Von Foerster on Observing Systems

      • Jan Achterbergh, Dirk Vriens

      Pages 75-116

   4. The Social “arche,” Organizations as Social Systems: Luhmann

      • Jan Achterbergh, Dirk Vriens

      Pages 117-166

   5. Epilogue to Part I: The Two “Archai” Combined

      • Jan Achterbergh, Dirk Vriens

      Pages 167-177

5. Designing Organizations as Social Systems Conducting Experiments

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 179-179

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   2. Beer: Functional Design Principles for Viable Infrastructures

      • Jan Achterbergh, Dirk Vriens

      Pages 181-225

   3. Specific Design Principles: de Sitter’s Organizational Structures

      • Jan Achterbergh, Dirk Vriens

      Pages 227-280

   4. Epilogue to Part II: functional and specific design principles

      • Jan Achterbergh, Dirk Vriens

      Pages 281-288

6. Poor and Rich Survival

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 289-289

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   2. Poor Survival: Disciplining Organizational Behavior

      • Jan Achterbergh, Dirk Vriens

      Pages 291-315

   3. Towards Rich Survival: Aristotle

      • Jan Achterbergh, Dirk Vriens

      Pages 317-349

   4. Organizational Structures Supporting Rich Survival

      • Jan Achterbergh, Dirk Vriens

      Pages 351-378

   5. Epilogue

      • Jan Achterbergh, Dirk Vriens

      Pages 379-385

7. Back Matter

   Pages 387-391

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to do to ensure survival, and (2) principles for designing organizational structures in such a way that they can realize the required functions adequately. In the course of their elaboration, we will show that these principles are general – i.e., that they hold for all organizations. 1.5 Conceptual Background To describe organizations as social systems conducting experiments and to present principles for designing an infrastructure supporting the “social experiment,” we use concepts from (organizational) cybernetics, social systems theory, and Aristotle’s ethics. In this book, we hope to show that concepts from these traditions – as introduced by their relevant representatives – can be integrated into a framework supporting our perspective on organizations. To this purpose, we introduce, in each of the following chapters, relevant concepts from an author “belonging” to one of these three traditions and show how these concepts contribute to describing organizations as social experiments (in Part I of the book), to formulating principles for the design of functions and organization structures supporting meaningful survival (Part II), and to formulating principles for the design of organization structures enabling the rich sense of meaningful survival (Part III). Of course, the relevance of cybernetics, social systems theory and Aristotle’s ethics can only be understood in full, after they have been treated in more detail – but based on what we said above, it may already be possible to see why these theories have been chosen as conceptual background.

• Design
• Transformation
• organization
• organizations
• social systems
• systems theory

• Fac. Management Sciences, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands

  Jan Achterbergh, Dirk Vriens

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