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Negentropy: Energy Creating Tools for Organizational Development

  • Organizational Training and Performance
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Abstract

Negentropy is a construct drawn from physics that can be conceptualized as the opposite of energy losses associated with normal organizational life. Over time, physical systems tend to “wind down” or entropy, eventually into disintegration. The application of negentropy to social systems, metaphorically, is the primary purpose of this paper—to propose negentropy as a tool to fight energy loss and consequent organizational disintegration. The application of negentropy to organizations and the limitations of that application are explored. Four specific tools for energy-creation are briefly reviewed. The theoretical assertion in this paper is that negentropy can be a powerful tool for sustainable, progressive models of organizational advancement.

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Correspondence to Ali Carr-Chellman.

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Carr-Chellman, A., Kitchel, A. & Freeman, S. Negentropy: Energy Creating Tools for Organizational Development. TechTrends 64, 275–279 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-019-00448-5

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