Organizations: A Systems Approach

How - as members, customers, voters or patients - do we deal with organizations: public administrations; universities and schools; hospitals; prisons; political parties; or the military? The systems theory developed by sociologist Niklas Luhmann is among the twentieth centurys seminal scientific achievements, commensurate perhaps only with Einsteins theory of relativity, Wittgensteins philosophy of language, or Freuds analysis of the unconscious. While systems theory is not easily accessible, the subject of organizations offers an opportunity to gain insight into the fecundity of this approach. This book is the first in which Luhmanns organizational theory and an introduction to systems theory have been presented in such brief and succinct form and will be readily grasped by a new audience. The author of Organizations argues that, in future, the elaborate conception that systems theory has put forward will be the standard that other theoretical approaches to explaining organizations will have to meet.