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Organizations

Social Systems Conducting Experiments

  • Book
  • © 2010

Overview

Authors:
  1. Jan Achterbergh

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

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    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Dirk Vriens

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

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    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Revised edition now in softcover.

  • One of the first books to combine cybernetics and social systems theory.

  • Provides a set of principles for designing socially responsible organizations.

  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

  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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Keywords

About this book

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.

Authors and Affiliations

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

    Jan Achterbergh, Dirk Vriens

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Organizations

  • Book Subtitle: Social Systems Conducting Experiments

  • Authors: Jan Achterbergh, Dirk Vriens

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14316-8

  • Publisher: Springer Berlin, Heidelberg

  • eBook Packages: Business and Economics, Business and Management (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-642-14315-1Published: 17 September 2010

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-642-14316-8Published: 02 September 2010

  • Edition Number: 2

  • Number of Pages: XII, 391

  • Number of Illustrations: 73 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Organization, Social Sciences, general

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