Evolutionary/systemic management of organizations: old ideas put to new use

This paper explores the connections between management theory and evolutionary theory in the context of corporations as social systems. Consideration is given to their history and the process of evolution as an affirmation to our capacity for learning. Rather than presenting evolution as the perfect law in a Spinozistic sense, the use of theories is profoundly altered from the classical approach in a methodology called System Design. Instead of a means of control and prediction, theories are used as a 'springboard' for participants to select a vision of their ideal future and to move in that direction. This methodology can be argued as a vehicle for guided evolution appropriate for organizational learning. Concepts from evolution such as self-organization, hypercycle and autopoiesis are extremely useful when applied to participative management in corporations. Although the transfer of evolutionary concepts from biology to social systems has met with controversy, I will show that by raising the application from the literal to a level of abstraction which includes not human but human properties, it is possible to arrive at new models for managing organizations appropriate in turbulent times. An example of an evolutionary design inquiry by a department in a corporation is briefly described. The evolutionary vision finds a new expression of self-transcendence in our new understanding of managing organizations.