Organization as a pyramiding, n-dimensional network of interconnected and overlappping closed loop information feedback systems

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1963

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Virginia Polytechnic Institute

Abstract

The theory of organization that this thesis proposes possesses a characteristic plasticity that should enable it to span the gap that has traditionally existed between the two broad types of current organizational theories. Generally, one type of theory proposes to describe how organizations should function and the other type proposes to describe how organizations actually do function.

The first type of theory often seems to result in proposals derived from formal, mechanistic concepts that are necessary, but largely superficial and not profoundly significant in an operational sense. The second type of theory essentially seems to suggest that an “informal organization'' actually functions to achieve the organizational objectives and such an organization is a function of existing personalities and, as a result, no universally applicable principles appear to exist upon which design considerations can be based. Such conclusions are usually drawn from some form of case studies that inherently produce knowledge that proves incomplete and ephemeral as events move on and organizations evolve.

Therefore, this theory seeks to reconcile and integrate the basic principles of these two types of theories by conceptualizing the basic principles of engineering design and statistical stability as they apply to organizational processes.

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