Autopoietic Systems

Abstract

We will begin this speculative enterprise by making a journey to another discipline, that of neurobiology. The objective of this chapter is to provide the reader with some ‘food for thought’ by visiting perspectives of cognition that are relatively unknown in the field of management and organizational studies, i.e. autopoiesis. Autopoiesis is, per se, distinct from the mainstream Weltanschauung of cognition discussed in Chapter 1. The beheaded, representation-based perspectives of management and organizations imply that business activities are contingent on external influences and respond to demands from the environment through internally representing a pre-given environment. The autopoietic perspective reflects the belief that cognitive activities in organizations are simultaneously open and closed. As will be seen throughout this book the autopoietic perspective not only sheds light on existing issues, it also opens up the management and organizational study realms for new probes into the unknown.