Organic organizations: a conceptual framework

Abstract

Summary form only given as follows. This paper aims at identifying the characteristics of being organic for organizations and makes an attempt to scale the different stages of being organic from a limited sense of being organic through to being wholly organic or true natural system. The process to become an organic organisation runs parallel to the processes found in the natural systems, drawing concepts from positive sciences rich as physics, chemistry, agriculture, biology, philosophy and the like. The literature that has been examined includes areas such as organization theory, technological change and models of natural systems, extending them to develop the concept of the organic organization. This paper provides a recipe for developing an organic organisation and it takes into account the views of organization builders and technically able planners. The paper uses evidences and conclusions drawn from various models of natural systems and discusses each individual concept in relation to the others, and also in terms of contribution to the concept of overall organic organizations. Advanced technology is considered as the major component in the development of an organic organisation and hence contribution of the same has been tracked and analyzed along with causes and emergence of being organic. Despite a large number of articles and books having been written on this subject, the thrust of the literature on how to design future organizations is remarkably coherent and provides valuable insights into the design, operation and control of future organizations.