Disorder and Contradiction: An Empirical Perspective on Self-Organization

Issue title: Chaos and Self-Organization in Companies

Guest editors: Arno L. GoudsmitGuest Editor

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Watts, D.L.

Affiliations: Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands

Abstract: Self-organization is frequently used more for purposes of prescription in the management field than to support analytical insights. Terms have changed such as organizational learning in place of organizational change; but it remains questionable whether our empirical understanding of this phenomenon has been altered. In the following discussion, cognitive, structural, and political barriers will be examined in terms of behaviors which appear to inhibit organizational learning. It will be argued that these ‘sources of deception’ are in fact, built into the design of organizations. We do observe however, organizations which revise their strategies and reorient policies. Illustrations from a case study of the U.S. Peace Corps of the 1960's, will provide the basis for examining internal redundancies and competitive behavior and their potential to support conditions of self-organization.

DOI: 10.3233/HSM-1990-9405

Journal: Human Systems Management, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 239-248, 1990