Organization and Decision

Translated by Rhodes Barrett NIklas Luhmann
Cambridge University Press, 11/8/2018
EAN 9781108458962, ISBN10: 1108458963

Paperback, 418 pages, 22.7 x 15.3 x 2.3 cm
Language: English

Translated into English for the first time, Luhmann's modern classic, Organization and Decision, explores how organizations work; how they should be designed, steered, and controlled; and how they order and structure society. Luhmann argues that organization is order, yet indeterminate. In this book, he shows how this paradox enables organizations to embed themselves within society without losing autonomy. In developing his autopoietic perspective on organizations, Luhmann applies his general theory of social systems by conceptualizing organizations as self­reproducing systems of decision communications. His innovative and interdisciplinary approach to the material (spanning organization studies, management and sociology) is integral to any study of organizations. This new translation, edited by one of the world's leading experts on Luhmann, enables researchers and graduate students across the English-speaking world to access Luhmann's ideas more readily.

1. Organization theory
the classical constructions
2. Organization as an autopoietic system
3. Membership and motives
4. The paradox of decision-making
5. Time relations 
6. Uncertainty absorption
7. Decision premises
8. Decision programs
9. Personnel
10. The organization of organization
11. Structural change
the poetry of reform and the reality of evolution
12. Technology
13. Organization and society
14. Self-description
15. Rationality
Conclusion
theory and practice.