Rethinking Organizational Boundaries via Luhmann’s Theory of Organized Systems
Abstract
This article examines how Luhmann's theory of organized systems can be used to expand our understanding of organizational boundaries. In a systematic way, we examine four central components of Luhmann's work: i) its basic distinction between organization and environment, ii) the openness and closeness of the organizations’ functioning, iii) the role of communications and decisions in identifying the limits of organizations and, lastly, iv) Luhmann’s emphasis on coordination in the construction of organizational boundaries. We discuss the salient points of both divergence and correspondence between Luhmann’s work and contending theoretical approaches to organizations. Potential contributions of Luhmann´s theory to analyses of contemporary organizations, both empirical and theoretical, are discussed.Keywords:
Organizations, Organizational boundaries, Systems theory, Social networks, Niklas LuhmannReferences
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Ashkenas, R., Ulrich, D., Jick, T. & Kerr, S. (2002). The Boundaryless Organization: Breaking the Chains of Organization Structure. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an Ecology of Mind. New York: Chandler Publishing.
Burns, T. & Stalker G. (1961). The Management of Innovation. London: Tavistock.
Burt, R. (1992). The Social Structure of Competition. In: N, Nitin & R. Eccles, Networks and Organizations (pp. 57-91). Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Brown, S. & Eisenhardt K. (1998). Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Carroll, G. & Hannan, M.T. (2000). Density-Dependent Processes. Reprinted in: M. Handel (Ed.), The Sociology of Organizations, 2003 (pp. 254-261). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Coleman, J. (1974). Power and the Structure of Society. New York: Norton.
DiMaggio, P. & Powell, W. (1983). The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147-160.
Elyachar, J. (2005). Markets of Dispossession: NGOs, Economic Development, and the State in Cairo. Durham: Duke University Press.
Febbrajo, A. & Harste G. (Eds.). (2013). Law and Intersystemic Communication. Understanding ‘Structural Coupling’. Surrey: Ashgate.
Ferrary, M. & Granovetter, M. (2009). The Role of Venture Capital Firms in Silicon Valley’s Complex Innovation Network. Economy and Society, 38(2), 326-359.
Fontdevila, J. Opazo, M. & White H. (2011). Order at the Edge of Chaos: Meanings from Netdom Switchings Across Functional Systems. Sociological Theory, 29(3), 178-198.
Gieryn, T. (1983). Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non-science: Strains and Interests in Professional Interests of Scientists. American Sociological Review, 48, 781-95.
Girard, M. & Stark D. (2003). Heterarchies of Value in Manhattan-based New Media Firms. Theory, Culture & Society, 20(3), 77-105.
Granovetter, M. (1985). Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology, 91(3), 481-510.
Granovetter, M. (1973). The Strength of Weak Ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360-1380.
Hannan, M. & Freeman J. (1977). The Population Ecology of Organizations. American Journal of Sociology, 82(5), 929-964.
Handel, M. (Ed.) (2003). The Sociology of Organizations: Classic, Contemporary and Critical Readings. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Hannan, M. & Freeman, J. (1993). Organizational Ecology. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Hernes T. & Bakken, T. (2003). Implications of Self-reference: Niklas Luhmann’s Autopoiesis and Organization Studies. Organization Studies, 24(9), 1511-1536.
Kühl, S. (2016). When the Monkeys Run the Zoo. Texto inédito, última revisión.
Christel, L. & Bachmann, R. (2002). Trust Within and Between Organizations: Conceptual Issues and Empirical Applications. New York: Oxford University Press.
Luhmann, N. (1981). The Improbability of Communication. International Social Sciences Journal, 32(1), 122-132.
Luhmann, N. (1994). What is the Case? And What Lies Behind It? The Two Sociologies and the Theory of Society. Sociological Theory, 12(2), 126-139.
Luhmann, N. (1995). Social Systems. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press. [1984]
Luhmann, N. (2010). Organización y decisión. Herder: México. [2000]
Luhmann, N. (2007). La sociedad de la sociedad. Ciudad de México, México: Herder.
MacKenzie, D., Muniesa, F. & Siu, L. (Eds.). (2007). Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Maturana, H. & Varela, F. (1998). The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding. Boston: Shambhala. [1984]
Meyer, J. & Rowan B. (1977). Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83(2), 340-363.
Mohe, M & Seidl, D. (2011). Theorizing the client-consultant relationship from the perspective of social-systems theory. Organization, 18(1), 3-22.
Padgett, J. & Powell, W. (2012). The Emergence of Organizations and Markets. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Parsons, T. (1956). Suggestions for a Sociological Approach to the Theory of Organizations-I. Administrative Science Quaterly, 1(1), 63-85.
Parsons, T. (1968). La estructura de la acción social. Madrid: Ediciones Guadarrama.
Perrow, C. (1986). Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay. New York: Random House. [1972]
Podolny, J. & Page, K. (1998). Network Forms of Organization. Annual Review of Sociology, 24, 57-76.
Powell, W. (1990). Neither Market nor Hierarchy: Network Forms of Organization. Research on Organizational Behavior, 12, 295-336.
Powell, W. & DiMaggio, P. (Eds.) (1991). The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Pfeffer, J. & Aldrich, H. (1976). Environments of Organizations. Annual Review of Sociology, 2, 79-105
Pfeffer, J. & Salancik, G. (1978). The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective. In M. Handel (Ed.), The Sociology of Organizations, 2003 (pp. 233-242). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Rodríguez, D. & Torres, J. (2007). El derecho de la sociología de la sociedad. In: Artur Stamford da Silva (Ed.), Sociologia do direito (pp. 135-201). Curitiba: Juruá.
Schreyögg, G. & J. Sydow. (2010). Understanding Organization as Process: Theory for a Tangled World. London: Routledge.
Scott, W. & Davis, G. (2003). Organizations and Organizing: Rational, Natural and Open System Perspectives. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.
Scott, W. (2004). Reflections of Half a Century of Organizational Sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 30, 1-21.
Seidl, D. & Becker, K. (Eds.). (2005). Niklas Luhmann and Organization Studies. Malmo: Liber & Copenhagen Business School Press.
Seidl, D. (2005). Organisational Identity and Self-transformation. An Autopoietic Perspective. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Seidl, D. & Becker, K. (2006). Organisations as Distinction Generating and Processing Systems. Niklas Luhmann's Contribution to Organisation Studies. Organization, 13(1), 9-35.
Selznick, P. (1953). TVA and the Grass Roots: A Study in the Sociology of Formal Organization. Los Angeles: California Press. [1949]
Senge, P. (1990). Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday.
Spencer-Brown, G. (1979). Laws of Form. New York: Dutton.
Stark, D. (2009). The Sense of Dissonance: Accounts of Worth in Economic Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Taylor, F. (1970). Principles of Management. New York: Harper. [1911]
Thompson, J. (1967). Organizations in Action. New York: Mc Graw Hill.
Vaughan, D. (1996). The Challenger Launch Decision: Risk Technology, Culture and Deviance at NASA. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Vaughan, D. (1998). Rational Choice, Situated Action, and Social Control: The Challenger Launch Decision. Law and Society, 1, 23-61.
Von Foerster, H. (1981). Observing Systems. California: Seaside.
Uzzi, B. (1996). The Sources and Consequences of Embeddeness for the Economic Performance of Organizations: The Network Effect. American Sociological Review, 61, 674-689
Weber, M. (1947). The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. New York: Oxford University Press.
Weber, M. (1878). Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Weick, K. (1979). The Social Psychology of Organizing. New York: Random House. [1969]
Weick, K. (1995). Sensemaking in Organizations. London: Sage.
White, H. (1981). Where do Markets Come from? American Journal of Sociology, 87(3), 517-547.
White, H. (1992). Identity and Control: A Structural Theory of Social Action. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
White, H. (2008). Identity and Control: How Social Formations Emerge. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Williamson, O. (1981). The Economics of Organizations: The Transaction Cost Approach. American Journal of Sociology, 87(3), 548-577.
Williamson, O. & William G. (1981). The Markets and Hierarchies and Visible Hand Perspectives. In: A. Van de Veny & W. Joyce (Eds.), Perspectives on Organization Design and Behavior (pp. 347-370). New York: Wiley.
Ashkenas, R., Ulrich, D., Jick, T. & Kerr, S. (2002). The Boundaryless Organization: Breaking the Chains of Organization Structure. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an Ecology of Mind. New York: Chandler Publishing.
Burns, T. & Stalker G. (1961). The Management of Innovation. London: Tavistock.
Burt, R. (1992). The Social Structure of Competition. In: N, Nitin & R. Eccles, Networks and Organizations (pp. 57-91). Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Brown, S. & Eisenhardt K. (1998). Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Carroll, G. & Hannan, M.T. (2000). Density-Dependent Processes. Reprinted in: M. Handel (Ed.), The Sociology of Organizations, 2003 (pp. 254-261). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Coleman, J. (1974). Power and the Structure of Society. New York: Norton.
DiMaggio, P. & Powell, W. (1983). The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147-160.
Elyachar, J. (2005). Markets of Dispossession: NGOs, Economic Development, and the State in Cairo. Durham: Duke University Press.
Febbrajo, A. & Harste G. (Eds.). (2013). Law and Intersystemic Communication. Understanding ‘Structural Coupling’. Surrey: Ashgate.
Ferrary, M. & Granovetter, M. (2009). The Role of Venture Capital Firms in Silicon Valley’s Complex Innovation Network. Economy and Society, 38(2), 326-359.
Fontdevila, J. Opazo, M. & White H. (2011). Order at the Edge of Chaos: Meanings from Netdom Switchings Across Functional Systems. Sociological Theory, 29(3), 178-198.
Gieryn, T. (1983). Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non-science: Strains and Interests in Professional Interests of Scientists. American Sociological Review, 48, 781-95.
Girard, M. & Stark D. (2003). Heterarchies of Value in Manhattan-based New Media Firms. Theory, Culture & Society, 20(3), 77-105.
Granovetter, M. (1985). Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology, 91(3), 481-510.
Granovetter, M. (1973). The Strength of Weak Ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360-1380.
Hannan, M. & Freeman J. (1977). The Population Ecology of Organizations. American Journal of Sociology, 82(5), 929-964.
Handel, M. (Ed.) (2003). The Sociology of Organizations: Classic, Contemporary and Critical Readings. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Hannan, M. & Freeman, J. (1993). Organizational Ecology. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Hernes T. & Bakken, T. (2003). Implications of Self-reference: Niklas Luhmann’s Autopoiesis and Organization Studies. Organization Studies, 24(9), 1511-1536.
Kühl, S. (2016). When the Monkeys Run the Zoo. Texto inédito, última revisión.
Christel, L. & Bachmann, R. (2002). Trust Within and Between Organizations: Conceptual Issues and Empirical Applications. New York: Oxford University Press.
Luhmann, N. (1981). The Improbability of Communication. International Social Sciences Journal, 32(1), 122-132.
Luhmann, N. (1994). What is the Case? And What Lies Behind It? The Two Sociologies and the Theory of Society. Sociological Theory, 12(2), 126-139.
Luhmann, N. (1995). Social Systems. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press. [1984]
Luhmann, N. (2010). Organización y decisión. Herder: México. [2000]
Luhmann, N. (2007). La sociedad de la sociedad. Ciudad de México, México: Herder.
MacKenzie, D., Muniesa, F. & Siu, L. (Eds.). (2007). Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Maturana, H. & Varela, F. (1998). The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding. Boston: Shambhala. [1984]
Meyer, J. & Rowan B. (1977). Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83(2), 340-363.
Mohe, M & Seidl, D. (2011). Theorizing the client-consultant relationship from the perspective of social-systems theory. Organization, 18(1), 3-22.
Padgett, J. & Powell, W. (2012). The Emergence of Organizations and Markets. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Parsons, T. (1956). Suggestions for a Sociological Approach to the Theory of Organizations-I. Administrative Science Quaterly, 1(1), 63-85.
Parsons, T. (1968). La estructura de la acción social. Madrid: Ediciones Guadarrama.
Perrow, C. (1986). Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay. New York: Random House. [1972]
Podolny, J. & Page, K. (1998). Network Forms of Organization. Annual Review of Sociology, 24, 57-76.
Powell, W. (1990). Neither Market nor Hierarchy: Network Forms of Organization. Research on Organizational Behavior, 12, 295-336.
Powell, W. & DiMaggio, P. (Eds.) (1991). The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Pfeffer, J. & Aldrich, H. (1976). Environments of Organizations. Annual Review of Sociology, 2, 79-105
Pfeffer, J. & Salancik, G. (1978). The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective. In M. Handel (Ed.), The Sociology of Organizations, 2003 (pp. 233-242). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Rodríguez, D. & Torres, J. (2007). El derecho de la sociología de la sociedad. In: Artur Stamford da Silva (Ed.), Sociologia do direito (pp. 135-201). Curitiba: Juruá.
Schreyögg, G. & J. Sydow. (2010). Understanding Organization as Process: Theory for a Tangled World. London: Routledge.
Scott, W. & Davis, G. (2003). Organizations and Organizing: Rational, Natural and Open System Perspectives. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.
Scott, W. (2004). Reflections of Half a Century of Organizational Sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 30, 1-21.
Seidl, D. & Becker, K. (Eds.). (2005). Niklas Luhmann and Organization Studies. Malmo: Liber & Copenhagen Business School Press.
Seidl, D. (2005). Organisational Identity and Self-transformation. An Autopoietic Perspective. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Seidl, D. & Becker, K. (2006). Organisations as Distinction Generating and Processing Systems. Niklas Luhmann's Contribution to Organisation Studies. Organization, 13(1), 9-35.
Selznick, P. (1953). TVA and the Grass Roots: A Study in the Sociology of Formal Organization. Los Angeles: California Press. [1949]
Senge, P. (1990). Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday.
Spencer-Brown, G. (1979). Laws of Form. New York: Dutton.
Stark, D. (2009). The Sense of Dissonance: Accounts of Worth in Economic Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Taylor, F. (1970). Principles of Management. New York: Harper. [1911]
Thompson, J. (1967). Organizations in Action. New York: Mc Graw Hill.
Vaughan, D. (1996). The Challenger Launch Decision: Risk Technology, Culture and Deviance at NASA. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Vaughan, D. (1998). Rational Choice, Situated Action, and Social Control: The Challenger Launch Decision. Law and Society, 1, 23-61.
Von Foerster, H. (1981). Observing Systems. California: Seaside.
Uzzi, B. (1996). The Sources and Consequences of Embeddeness for the Economic Performance of Organizations: The Network Effect. American Sociological Review, 61, 674-689
Weber, M. (1947). The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. New York: Oxford University Press.
Weber, M. (1878). Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Weick, K. (1979). The Social Psychology of Organizing. New York: Random House. [1969]
Weick, K. (1995). Sensemaking in Organizations. London: Sage.
White, H. (1981). Where do Markets Come from? American Journal of Sociology, 87(3), 517-547.
White, H. (1992). Identity and Control: A Structural Theory of Social Action. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
White, H. (2008). Identity and Control: How Social Formations Emerge. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Williamson, O. (1981). The Economics of Organizations: The Transaction Cost Approach. American Journal of Sociology, 87(3), 548-577.
Williamson, O. & William G. (1981). The Markets and Hierarchies and Visible Hand Perspectives. In: A. Van de Veny & W. Joyce (Eds.), Perspectives on Organization Design and Behavior (pp. 347-370). New York: Wiley.
