The politics of openness

Clegg, S; van Rijmenam, M; Schweitzer, J

The politics of openness

Clegg, S

van Rijmenam, M

Schweitzer, J

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Publication Type:: Conference Proceeding
Citation:: 2017
Issue Date:: 2017-07-06

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Clegg, S https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6083-4283	en_US
dc.contributor.author	van Rijmenam, M https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5382-4164	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Schweitzer, J https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3145-721X	en_US
dc.date	2017-07-06	en_US
dc.date.issued	2017-07-06	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	2017	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/134101
dc.description.abstract	The concern with openness is well established in organization theory providing a common language for observing, understanding and predicting system behaviours. Beside more conventional views of systems, which favour an objectivised view of relations between organizations and, therefore, recommendations for setting the conditions of their mutual openness, Luhmann’s theoretical framework shows that openness is problematic per se for social systems as organizations. Systems endogenously construct their differentiation from other systems through closure. Any systemic society is based on closure and specific cognitive rules, not on openness and objectivised communication. In the language of systems theory, openness is a lure as a systemic analysis of the fragmentation of power shows. We use Clegg’s (1989) ‘circuits’ approach to a systems theory of power to make connections with Luhmann (1979): there are many points of comparison between them, including the key role of events, the centrality of social constructions and the autopoietic nature of the circuits of power.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	2017 European Group for Organizational Studies Conference	en_US
dc.title	The politics of openness	en_US
dc.type	Conference Proceeding
utslib.location.activity	Copenhagen, Denmark	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Business
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Business/Management Discipline
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Students
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.consider-herdc	false	en_US
pubs.finish-date	2017-07-08	en_US
pubs.start-date	2017-07-06	en_US

Abstract:

The concern with openness is well established in organization theory providing a common language for observing, understanding and predicting system behaviours. Beside more conventional views of systems, which favour an objectivised view of relations between organizations and, therefore, recommendations for setting the conditions of their mutual openness, Luhmann’s theoretical framework shows that openness is problematic per se for social systems as organizations. Systems endogenously construct their differentiation from other systems through closure. Any systemic society is based on closure and specific cognitive rules, not on openness and objectivised communication. In the language of systems theory, openness is a lure as a systemic analysis of the fragmentation of power shows. We use Clegg’s (1989) ‘circuits’ approach to a systems theory of power to make connections with Luhmann (1979): there are many points of comparison between them, including the key role of events, the centrality of social constructions and the autopoietic nature of the circuits of power.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/134101