Title: Autopoiesis and organizations: A biological view of organizational change and methods for its study
Abstract: For many years we have been concerned with the role that autopoietic theory can play
in resolving what is often termed the micro-macro problem in social science. The
‗micro-to-macro problem‘ concerns our capacity to explain the relationship between
the constitutive elements of social systems (people) and emergent phenomena
resulting from their interaction (i.e. organizations, societies, economies). To this end
we have argued (Goldspink and Kay 2003, 2004), for a synthesis of autopoietic and
complexity theory, where autopoietic theory provides a basis for understanding the
characteristics of the micro-level agents that make up social systems (human
individuals), whilst complexity theory provides a basis for understanding how these
characteristics influence the range and type of macro-level behaviours that arise from
their interaction. Implicit to this view is the assumption that it is biology which
specifies the characteristics and qualities of human agents. Therefore it is also biology
which constrains the range and type of interactions these agents can generate, and
hence the form of structure which emerges from that interaction. This approach
differs considerably from the disembodied sociological path taken in Luhmann‘s
(1990) application of autopoietic systems. The main contribution of Maturana and Varela‘s (1980) autopoietic theory has been to
provide a concise specification of the defining characteristics of biological agents
including humans. It serves therefore to advance our understanding of the micro facet
of the micro-macro problem. Before his death, Varela began to explore further the
implications of autopoiesis for understanding social macro phenomena drawing
increasingly on a complex systems view (Thompson and Varela 2001; Rudrauf et al.
2003). We seek to extend this offshoot of the original contribution. In this chapter we attend in particular, to some of the practical implications that result
from a social extension of autopoiesis. Principle amongst these is our understanding
of the basis for and nature of organizational change. We begin by giving a brief
overview of the micro-macro problem and an outline of our approach to its resolution.
We then draw on this approach to develop a perspective on stability and change in
organizations. We illustrate this using two cases and in so doing also provide
examples of methods which can be used to map the interplay of micro and macro
behaviour in particular organizational contexts.
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 2
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