A. Georges L. Romme

Introduction to the Special Issue: Organization Studies as a Science for Design: Creating Collaborative Artifacts and Research

Organization research has recently started to reach beyond the antagonisms of positivism versus its postmodernist and critical counterparts, which have dominated the discourse in organization studies over the last 20 years. A promising approach instead involves positioning organization studies as a science for design. While the natural sciences seek description, explanation or prediction of what is, design scientists ask what could be, seeking betterment of the human condition. Inspired by Simon’s (1969) The Sciences of the Artificial, an organization science for design seriously addresses the need for scholars and managers alike for better organizational forms and processes. Organization design science is still very early in its development: different, even conflicting theories about organization design and development abound; laboratories for organizational experiments are largely absent; and little knowledge on management and organization is systematically codified — too much remains anecdotal and dependent on context. As a result, the current state of a science for organization design is fragmented and immature. Previous academic research on organization design focussed primarily on questions of theoretical relevance. A science-for-design perspective differs from previous treatments of organization design in two ways. First, it can bridge the worlds of theoretical and practical significance. Without theory, organizational practice is uninformed; without practice, organization theory is moribund. Second, the enormous diversity in organization research and theory is merely confusing without an adequate epistemology, particularly in view of the need to connect to practice. A design science approach can facilitate an integrative framework that acknowledges the unique role and contribution of key epistemological traditions in organization studies (including positivism, constructivism and pragmatism). The call for papers for this Special Issue invited submissions from scholars who view organization and management research as a pluralist discipline that draws on (at least) two key modes of engaging in research: science and design. According to Simon (1969), science views existing organizational systems as empirical objects from an outsider perspective, while design envisions systems that do not yet exist — either completely new systems or new states of existing systems. Science raises the question ‘is this proposition valid or true?’, while article title

Domination, Self-Determination and Circular Organizing:

The emergence of self-organizing forms of control, based on the idea of self-determination, have challenged traditional forms of control based on the concept of domination. As such, self-determination has been put forward as an alternative rather than as a complement to domination. This paper describes and explores the circular forms of organizing that have been emerging in several parts of the world, viewing them as a possible synthesis of two existing archetypical concepts of power-self-determination and domination. In particular, the emergence of circular organizing in the Dutch company Endenburg Elektrotechniek is documented and interpreted. This case illustrates how a circular structure can be superimposed on the administrative hierarchy, with the latter continuing to play a substantial role in controlling and managing work processes. In the absence of a single ultimate authority, organizational control is exercised through feedback rather than power. As a result of this study, circularity of power is shown to be an interesting theoretical and instrumental concept.

Learning Outcomes of Microworlds for Management Education

Computer-based simulations are important tools to support learning. In this respect, so-called microworlds may build substantial synergy between learning to think in systems frameworks and learning to deal with the complexity of actual settings. The implications of adopting microworlds are explored in terms of student learning, educational approach and course design. These implications are illustrated with data from a course in a pre-experience undergraduate programme and in a post-experience MBA programme. These data suggest that learning processes can be deepened and accelerated by creating effective combinations of readings, discussions, presentations and microworlds.

Perceptions of the value of microworld simulation: research note

The educational value of microworlds has been accepted as an article of faith. This research note defines microworlds as simulators based on system dynamics models of particular business systems. Subsequently, it explores how business students perceive microworld simulation. This research draws on data obtained from courses in undergraduate business programs as well as a postexperience MBA program. The data suggest that the learning benefits perceived by students are substantial. Moreover, mature students are more likely to benefit from microworlds than less mature ones.

Organizational Learning, Circularity and Double-Linking

In recent writings on organizational learning an interesting debate between proponents of team learning and those defending hierarchy as an essential condition for learning has developed. Here it is argued that teams appear to be the key learning units in organizations, but hierarchies are necessary to store and accumulate important learning results. Thus, in larger organizations teams must be integrated into some kind of hierarchy. Several authors have dealt with the problem of combining the benefits of both hierarchical and team-like structures. Attempts by Likert and Ackoff to combine the benefits of both hierarchical and team structures are based on the ideas of circularity and the (single) linking pin. A further elaboration of these solutions involves the idea of double-linking, as it is used in several Dutch organizations. Double-linking between teams provides the kind of vertical linkages which support and safeguard upward as well as downward information processing. As such, through the principle of double-linking organizations may become reflexive learning organizations.

Designing Management Education: Practice What You Teach

In management education the medium can be the message. Students can experience the concepts they are learning if the curriculum is organized and run according to the management and organization principles being taught. This article defines ideas and presents guidelines for the design-in-the-large of education in management and organization. These ideas are then applied to two design-in-the-small cases: the XB design for an undergraduate course in organizational behavior and the thesis ring design involving collaborative supervision of thesis projects. Finally, the implications of practicing what you teach for education are discussed.

Book Reviews: Cynthia Hardy: Strategies for Rentrenchment and Turnaround: The Politics of Survival 1990. Berlin, New York: de Gruyter. 222 pages

as though they may be useful in helping companies to unfreeze and become creative about their strategic perspectives though they are more to do with attacking mind-sets than changing organizational arrangements. Others are somewhat mechanistic devices to ascribe risks and probabilities to elements of various scenarios. The second part of the book is less interesting. Its summaries of the standard U.S. literature on strategic management will be familiar to most O. S. readers and, although it is nice to see that the importance of culture change in strategic management is emphasised, this is now becoming commonplace. What is of more interest is the evidence that a number of modern management gurus are echoing some of the earliest management writers. For example, we are told that F. W. Taylor would have been the first to indict Taylorism and we are reminded that he called for a ’mental