Abstract
I have to confess that when I first received the kind invitation from Dr. Probst to participate in a meeting entitled “Management and Self-Organization in Social Systems” I was not quite clear about my role in such a meeting. I am not a stranger to the notion of Self-Organization; but when I considered it in the context of management and, moreover, in the environment of a Hochschule für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, I felt lost. I understand so little about management that already in grade school my teachers complained that this boy is unmanageable. In fact, I had to look “management” up in my dictionary (1). Here I found that it is derived from... “constraining the movement of hands”, having the same root as “to manacle”, that is, putting someone into handcuffs: I was prepared to decline this invitation.
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von Foerster, H. (1984). Principles of Self-Organization — In a Socio-Managerial Context. In: Ulrich, H., Probst, G.J.B. (eds) Self-Organization and Management of Social Systems. Springer Series in Synergetics, vol 26. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69762-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69762-3_1
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