Operational Closure and Self-Reference : On the Logic of Organizational Change

The concept of autopoiesis introduced by Maturana and Varela has, in the last four decades, triggered intellectual efforts for the understanding of phenomena of self-organization in general. This contribution aims at conceptualizing and applying two aspects of autopoiesis-operational closure and self-reference-in respect of social organizations. We formalize these concepts and demonstrate their power to explain change processes. This is achieved by means of a qualitative case study and a quantitative simulation model, which lead to counterintuitive insights about the dynamics of organizational transformation.