David Seidl brings together two important issues in organization and management studies in this volume: the concept and related theory of organizational identity, and autopoietic organization theory (as originally developed by Niklas Luhmann). The contribution of the book is twofold: it provides an introduction to autopoietic organization theory and it provides a new perspective on organizational identity and self-transformation. Thus the book is relevant to both organization theorists interested in new approaches to organization and to researchers of organizational identity. The themes are reflected in the structure of the book. Chapters one and two provide an introduction to Niklas Luhmann's organization theory. Based on this, chapter three develops a new concept of organizational identity. In chapters four and five a theory of organizational self-transformation (i.e. change of identity) is developed.

Autopoietic systems show a remarkable property in the way they interact with their environment: on the one hand building blocks and energy (including information) are exchanged with the environment, which characterizes them as open systems; on the other hand, any functional mechanisms—the way the system processes, incorporates building blocks, and responds to information—are totally self-determined and cannot be controlled by interventions from the environment. Information systems in an organization seem to accept the autopoietic system way of development and can help managers to understand the operations of their organizations better. The Handbook of Research on Autopoiesis and Self-Sustaining Processes for Organizational Success is an innovative reference book that presents the meaning of autopoietic organizations for social and information science, examines how autopoietic organizations are information self-producing and self-controlled, and provides a framework for its development in modern organizations. The book focuses on analyzing autopoiesis features such as self-managing, self-sustaining, self-producing, self-regulating, etc. Moreover, as the aforementioned characteristics receive a new interpretation in IT environments, the book also includes an exploration of IT solutions that enable the development of these characteristics. This book is ideal for professionals, academicians, researchers, and students working in the field of information economics and management in various disciplines such as information and communication sciences, administrative sciences and management, education, computer science, and information technology.

Management and organization research has rediscovered individual agency, innovation and entrepreneurship. As such, there is a risk of overlooking the power of self-reinforcing processes in and among organizations. This volume redirects attention to these processes, including: escalating commitment, organizational imprinting and path dependence.

Smart Cities and Digital Transformation offers a three-tiered approach to tomorrow’s cities in terms of limitless innovation, sustainable development and empowering communities.

Organizational Transformation for Sustainability: An Integral Metatheory offers some innovative answers to the big questions involved in organizational sustainability and the radical changes that organizations will need to undergo as we move into the third millennium. This new approach comes from the new field of integral metatheory.

In this innovative work, Kristof Van Assche, Raoul Beunen and Monica Gruezmacher analyse the challenges and possibilities of sustainability transitions, presenting the dilemmas facing the path to sustainable communities and societies, as well as proposing creative solutions. The authors deploy evolutionary governance theory as a conceptual framing for transition strategy, highlighting the importance of understanding governance and community strategy in any potential response to environmental crises.

This book presents a multidisciplinary and multifaceted view of the state of corporate social responsibility (CSR) development in organizations in different industries around the world. It is based on the assumption that companies today must shift their focus to their long-term prosperity and the complex and interrelated environmental, social, economic and political ecosystems within which they function. The book tracks ideas through to impacts, offering unique perspectives on stimulating topics such as awareness among female entrepreneurs in Nigeria, views of upper-management in Polish firms, Japanese CSR strategies and the social relevance of corporate initiatives, pragmatic approaches of CSR design principles in Scandinavia and many more. The book collects not only examples from different countries and global regions, but also cases from a diverse range of globally relevant industries. It discusses the different stages of CSR development at a professional, conceptual and strategic level, and integrates them into a comprehensive framework to define the adequate course of action for each stage.

Sustainable Self-Governance in Businesses and Society offers a sound introduction to Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM) and clarifies its relevance to support organisational sustainability and self-governance. While the VSM has been known since the early 1980s, it hasn’t been always easy to understand and to apply. It explains the self-transformation methodology to analyse the way organisations manage (or not) their complexity and govern themselves. The work is supported by multiple examples of application in organisations of all scales – from small to multi-national corporations and from organised social networks to communities and national organisations. It clarifies the relevance of Beer’s theory to support systemic learning and change in organisations, and to coach them to self-organise and self-govern. Readers interested in further understanding insights from complex systems and cybernetics theories for designing and transforming organisations will benefit from this book, as it works to offer very detailed insights on how to put the VSM theory into practice. It clarifies how it improves adaptive capabilities, agile and self-regulated structures, more capable of fully implementing corporate sustainability strategies and self-governing themselves. The chapters provide key reading for managers, consultants, practitioners, and post-graduate students working in organisational transformation, governance, and sustainability.

A comprehensive, multi-perspective approach to coaching culture provides models, methods, and tools to consider the building of coaching cultures Includes both grounding theory and application to a variety of contexts.

This book is about the past as well as the future in organisations in general and about an organisation’s temporal contextualisation in particular. The author analyses, how organisations are able to construct a present with respect to their past and future. The study is based on an empirical case study, in which an R&D department has been followed for a six month-period in order to analyse how an organisation orients itself with respect to its past, present and future from the perspective of communication-centred social systems theory.