Self-Organization and Management of Social Systems: Insights, Promises, Doubts, and Questions (Springer Series in Synergetics (26))

Front Matter....Pages I-IX Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Principles of Self-Organization — In a Socio-Managerial Context....Pages 2-24 Two Principles for Self-Organization....Pages 25-32 Can Synergetics Be of Use to Management Theory?....Pages 33-41 Self-Organisation: Some Theoretical Cross-Connections....Pages 42-59 Towards a Theory of Social Systems: Self-Organization and Self-Maintenance, Self-Reference and Syn-Reference....Pages 60-78 Front Matter....Pages 79-79 Management — A Misunderstood Societal Function....Pages 80-93 Systems Thinking in Management: The Development of Soft Systems Methodology and Its Implications for Social Science....Pages 94-104 Evolutionary Management....Pages 105-120 Systems Approach to Management: Hopes, Promises, Doubts — A Lot of Questions and Some Afterthoughts....Pages 121-126 Cybernetic Principles for the Design, Control, and Development of Social Systems and Some Afterthoughts....Pages 127-131 Some Explanatory Boundaries of Organismic Analogies for the Understanding of Social Systems....Pages 132-147 Insights, Promises, Doubts, and Questions Emerging from a Colloquium — A Summary....Pages 148-152 Back Matter....Pages 153-158 Self-organization of systems belonging to quite different discipl ines has been a central topic of synergetics since its beginning. I am therefore particularly plea sed that Hans Ulrich and Gilbert Probst have not only undertaken to organize an interdisciplinary meeting on Self-Organization and Management of Social Systems, but have also edited these articles written by leading scientists after and based upon that symposium. While the previous volumes of the Springer Series in Synergetics were mainly de voted to physical, chemical and biological systems, with only the book by W. Weidlich and G. Haag deal i ng with "Quant i tat i ve Soc i 01 ogy" (Spri nger Ser. Syn., Vo 1. 14), the present volume opens a new perspective. As the reader will notice, the multitude of facets of self-organization is well reflected by various authors belonging to different discipl ines and representing different schools of thought. When such a wide scope of fields - ranging from phy sics to sociology - is covered, it is not surprising that the existence of a "hiatus" between sociology and the natural sciences was felt by some participants