THE REDESIGN DIALOGUE - ORGANIZATIONAL-CHANGE AND THE THEORY OF AUTOPOIETIC SYSTEMS

Authors
Citation
B. Fruytier, THE REDESIGN DIALOGUE - ORGANIZATIONAL-CHANGE AND THE THEORY OF AUTOPOIETIC SYSTEMS, Economic and industrial democracy, 17(3), 1996, pp. 327-357
Citations number
49
Categorie Soggetti
Industrial Relations & Labor
ISSN journal
0143831X
Volume
17
Issue
3
Year of publication
1996
Pages
327 - 357
Database
ISI
SICI code
0143-831X(1996)17:3<327:TRD-OA>2.0.ZU;2-O
Abstract
A paradox lurks in the fact that obstinate 'Taylorist' organizations s hould learn to become 'learning' organizations. Argyris and Schon (197 8) regard this paradox as a key problem in managing structural organiz ational change. Today's design-oriented methods, such as business proc ess re-engineering (BPR) (Hammer and Champy, 1993; Davenport, 1993) an d especially the modern variant of social-technical 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 t his key problem. They do not offer a method of implementing the new st ructures. In this article an attempt is made to provide for such a met hod. A 'redesign dialogue' is developed as a method for the successful management of change. The dialogue is based on a new way in which org anizations are being conceptualized, i.e, as autopoietic systems (Luhm ann, 1984). This conceptualization yields significant knowledge of the dynamics of the process of change and the opportunities for intervent ion. Besides providing a method of change, this article aims at offeri ng a theoretical foundation for some of the current trends in organiza tional change, i.e. the increasing focus on participation, the vital i mportance of commitment, the emphasis on learning in the change proces s, the broadening of the consultant's role towards teacher and coach a nd the broadening of the manager's role to change advocate, change spo nsor and change agent.