Systemisches Management, Evolution, Selbstorganisation
Fredmund Malik
2nd revised edition
ISBN: 3258059934
421 pages
Verlag Paul Haupt; Bern, Stuttgart, Wien 2000

This book is aimed at managers who want to gain a better understanding of the fundamental nature of the organization in which they are working. Organizations in modern societies are generally highly complex systems which should not be described, as is usually the case, in terms of machines, but which can be much better understood by using the analogy of organisms. It is not possible to understand or explain them in every detail, nor to structure and control them. They have their own laws, and are controlled, it is true, by objectives, but primarily by rules.

The - inevitable - relinquishment of detailed structuring and control does not imply a reduction in the number of managerial opportunities and abilities. On the contrary, the system-appropriate application of rules opens up new and improved opportunities for managing complex systems. Only in this way can evolution, self-organization and self-regulation be used to improve the effectiveness of organizations within the modern knowledge and information society.