The Redesign Dialogue: Organizational Change and the Theory of Autopoietic Systems

A paradox lurks in the fact that obstinate 'Taylorist' organizations should learn to become 'learning' organizations. Argyris and Schon (1978) regard this paradox as a key problem in managing structural organizational change. Today's design-oriented methods, such as business process re-engineering (BPR) (Hammer and Champy, 1993; Davenport, 1993) and especially the modern variant of socialtechnical systems design (de Sitter et al., 1990), amply provide the tools for the redesign of the architecture of Taylorist organization processes but fail to tackle this key problem. They do not offer a method of implementing the new structures. In this article an attempt is made to provide for such a method. A 'redesign dialogue' is developed as a method for the successful management of change. The dialogue is based on a new way in which organizations are being conceptualized, i.e. as autopoietic systems (Luhmann, 1984). This conceptualization yields significant knowledge of the dynamics of the process of change and the opportunities for intervention. Besides providing a method of change, this article aims at offering a theoretical foundation for some of the current trends in organizational change, i.e. the increasing focus on participation, the vital importance of commitment, the emphasis on learning in the change process, the broadening of the consultant's role towards teacher and coach and the broadening of the manager's role to change advocate, change sponsor and change agent.