Sense Dimensions
This and not that, this one and not that one, now and not later- all psychological and social systems move in the environment of these questions. This division of sense, conceived by N. Luhmann, into the dimensions of ‘factual’, ‘social’, and ‘time’, has proved itself and is also used by us here.
The factual dimension focuses the attention on all distinctions which deal with what and how something is done and developed. For example, in organisations the question as to how work is divided (guiding process networking), to which factors the factual decisions are directed (guiding process decision orientation) and whether one proceeds thoroughly or quickly (guiding process quality focus), are considered.
The social dimension is used when one wishes to focus the attention on who speaks to whom about what (or not). Thus, organisations are constantly concerned about who is placed in what position (guiding process personnel), who can attend which meetings (guiding process decision-maker) or who is allowed to control whom during the work (guiding process social complexity).
The time dimension comes into play because decisions must always be made about what is to take place in the narrow time frame of the present and what can be moved to a later date or abandoned entirely. Organisations must therefore decide when to learn or not (guiding process handling the past), when they must deal with specific, actual challenges (guiding process handling the present), and which future developments should be processed now (guiding process handling the future).
The sense dimensions of the system theory of Luhmann are, in these meta-theoretical considerations, connected to the imperative of decision-making in organisations. Out of these, nine guiding processes can be developed.