IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/srbeha/v29y2012i4p342-367.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Operational Closure and Self‐Reference: On the Logic of Organizational Change

Author

Listed:
  • Markus Schwaninger
  • Stefan N. Groesser

Abstract

The concept of autopoiesis introduced by Maturana and Varela has, in the last four decades, triggered intellectual efforts for the understanding of phenomena of self‐organization in general. This contribution aims at conceptualizing and applying two aspects of autopoiesis—operational closure and self‐reference—in respect of social organizations. We formalize these concepts and demonstrate their power to explain change processes. This is achieved by means of a qualitative case study and a quantitative simulation model, which lead to counterintuitive insights about the dynamics of organizational transformation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Markus Schwaninger & Stefan N. Groesser, 2012. "Operational Closure and Self‐Reference: On the Logic of Organizational Change," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 342-367, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:srbeha:v:29:y:2012:i:4:p:342-367
    DOI: 10.1002/sres.2111
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.2111
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sres.2111?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William H. Starbuck, 2010. "What Makes a Paper Influential and Frequently Cited?," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(7), pages 1394-1404, November.
    2. John D. Sterman & Jason Wittenberg, 1999. "Path Dependence, Competition, and Succession in the Dynamics of Scientific Revolution," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 10(3), pages 322-341, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alvesson, Mats & Sveningsson, Stefan, 2011. "Management is the solution: Now what was the problem? On the fragile basis for managerialism," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 349-361.
    2. Lewe, J.-H. & Hivin, L.F. & Mavris, D.N., 2014. "A multi-paradigm approach to system dynamics modeling of intercity transportation," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 188-202.
    3. Florentin Gloetzl & Ernest Aigner, 2015. "Pluralism in the Market of Science? A citation network analysis of economic research at universities in Vienna," Ecological Economics Papers ieep5, Institute of Ecological Economics.
    4. Samet Güner, 2018. "Evaluation of the evolution of green management with a Kuhnian perspective," Business Research, Springer;German Academic Association for Business Research, vol. 11(2), pages 309-328, September.
    5. Woodside, Arch G., 2014. "Embrace•perform•model: Complexity theory, contrarian case analysis, and multiple realities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 2495-2503.
    6. Olya, Hossein G.T. & Altinay, Levent, 2016. "Asymmetric modeling of intention to purchase tourism weather insurance and loyalty," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 2791-2800.
    7. Damien Besancenot & Habib Dogguy, 2011. "Paradigm Shift," Working Papers halshs-00590527, HAL.
    8. Claudius Gräbner & Birte Strunk, 2020. "Pluralism in economics: its critiques and their lessons," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 311-329, October.
    9. Camilo Olaya, 2015. "Cows, agency, and the significance of operational thinking," System Dynamics Review, System Dynamics Society, vol. 31(4), pages 183-219, October.
    10. Rogier Langhe, 2017. "Towards the discovery of scientific revolutions in scientometric data," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(1), pages 505-519, January.
    11. Papachristos, George, 2017. "Diversity in technology competition: The link between platforms and sociotechnical transitions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 291-306.
    12. Philip Anderson, 1999. "Perspective: Complexity Theory and Organization Science," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 10(3), pages 216-232, June.
    13. Joao R. Faria & Damien Besancenot & Andréas J. Novak, 2009. "Paradigm depletion, knowledge production and research effort," CEPN Working Papers halshs-00447302, HAL.
    14. Claudius Gräbner, 2017. "The Complexity of Economies and Pluralism in Economics," Journal of Contextual Economics (JCE) – Schmollers Jahrbuch, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 137(3), pages 193-225.
    15. M. Laura Frigotto & Massimo Riccaboni, 2011. "A few special cases: scientific creativity and network dynamics in the field of rare diseases," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 89(1), pages 397-420, October.
    16. Jakob Kapeller & Stephan Puehringer & Christian Grimm, 2022. "Paradigms and policies: the state of economics in the German-speaking countries," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 1183-1210, July.
    17. repec:dau:papers:123456789/13444 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Hämäläinen, Raimo P. & Lahtinen, Tuomas J., 2016. "Path dependence in Operational Research—How the modeling process can influence the results," Operations Research Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 3(C), pages 14-20.
    19. Jean‐Philippe Vergne & Rodolphe Durand, 2010. "The Missing Link Between the Theory and Empirics of Path Dependence: Conceptual Clarification, Testability Issue, and Methodological Implications," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 736-759, June.
    20. Glötzl, Florentin & Aigner, Ernest, 2017. "Six Dimensions of Concentration in Economics: Scientometric Evidence from a Large-Scale Data Set," Ecological Economic Papers 15, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    21. Tullberg, Jan, 2011. "Comparatism--A constructive approach in the philosophy of science," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 444-453, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:srbeha:v:29:y:2012:i:4:p:342-367. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/1092-7026 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.