Structures and Dynamics of Autopoietic Organizations

Knowledge, learning, and memory are major concepts in management science and organization theory. First and foremost, they are attributed to individuals rather than organizations.


Steffen Blaschke reconsiders the three major concepts in the light of social systems theory. He complements autopoietic organization theory with a clear-cut distinction between individual and organizational knowledge, learning, and memory. Following suit of agent-based modelling, he provides an operationalization of autopoietic organization theory in terms of computational simulation. The author subjects organizational structures and dynamics to a range of simulation scenarios, thereby questioning the effects of work groups and communities of practice as well as personnel turnover and layoff on knowledge, learning, and memory.