Structural Couplings of Organizational Design and Organizational Engineering

Autopoiesis research which constitutes a theory of complex, non-linear and especially living systems, provides a suitable framework for analyzing organizational systems as organizationally closed and autonomous entities. These entities are able to self-organize through what we commonly denote with organizational design. They interact with their environment through a process known as structural coupling in which they influence the structure of the environment what in turn often triggers changes in the structure of the very entity. This process is of special interest when two organizationally closed entities interact. We usually say that they are languaging, which is the process of using language. Note that the term language here is used in a much broader sense then in its usual (human) meaning. Language is here not a set of structured symbols, but a set of actions which influence the structure of the other system. In terms of organizations its effects can be changes in individual sensemaking of employees, changes in a database or other computer based model, changes in money flow from customers or even changes in marketing channels. In the following chapter the gap between organizational design and organizational engineering is approached by analyzing various entities which are part of the process of shaping organizational architecture and its computer based embodiment in form of IS/IT alignment. If we observe an organization as an autopoietic entity we might conceptualize its interactions with IT as a structural coupling the result of which should be a functional and up-to-date software system which suits the needs of the entity’s strategic endeavors. But this often isn’t the case and we might ask the question why is that so? If we observe this coupling in more detail we find that it is much more complex than initially envisaged. The organizational system in fact couples not to IT directly,