Demise of Organisations
If, as attempted here, one understands organisations as systems, which refine their internal reference structure (=selections) more and more and separates one from the other, then it is easily explainable that organisations above a certain size (=selection level) would die rather than change. From a viewpoint of evolutionary theory, one would have to say that, when one area changes, so many other areas must change simultaneously, that mutations are simply no longer implementable. The demise of (economic) organisations is, thus, more probable than improbable, given relevant changes in the environment, which would make large adaptations necessary, internally. Organisations ‘become fixed in their own history’ (Luhmann). This ‘becoming fixed’ particularly counts for the undecidable decision-making premises! Therefore, decisions in organisations can only ever impact indirectly and thus, slowly, in this aspect of their system dynamics. Accordingly, during a need for rapid change this is dangerous.
Not least because of this, only ‘disruptive’ changes can then come into question, because otherwise the survival becomes the debate: complete change of the business model, merger, acquisition, splitting apart, separation etc.
The optimism, with which change theory occasionally operates, cannot really be justified theoretically (and going on life experience), in fact, quite the opposite.