Organisations as Communication Patterns
If one assumes, like here, that organisations are systems which are self-sustaining and configuring, one question arises: who configures, how, and with what? It cannot be people, otherwise it would be them who configure and sustain the organisations (although this is what is commonly understood). If, on the other hand, one sees communication processes as things which lead to an independent existence and which are not controllable, then the patterns of these communications must, likewise, be describable, just like patterns of ‘relationships’ in teams, or of ‘awareness’ in the psyche is possible. This should be facilitated with the help of the descriptions of organisational guiding processes presented here. They enable you to observe which communications in an organisation have the greatest chance of success (=readiness to connect), and which communications are more likely to be ineffective. The organisational guiding processes provide a conceptual and reflective space, which brings with it neither the disadvantages of phase models (not sufficiently situation specific) nor those of the category schemes (too simplistic). Those who describe the patterns of communication in a company in line with the guiding processes, can then, as a manager or as a consultant, see more clearly which of these patterns are dysfunctional and where it may be possible to influence them in order to frustrate the pattern.