ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN PRINCIPLES (Final Part)

Participative Democratic Organization or Behaviour-Enhancing Second Design Principle (DP2)

DP2 structures are based on Open-Systems Design Principles (Contextualism) and the model of directive correlation between system and environment.

The resemblance of DP2 to an “Ecosphere” may not be accidental. DP2 was purposefully designed to reconcile scientific knowledge (expertise) and ecological knowledge (common sense) based on ecological learning, open-systems and the model of directive correlation thus, catering to physical and psychological human needs and aspects (i.e., to allow for purposeful and ideal-seeking behaviour) (Emery, 1993). Some of these aspects are a pro-active-adaptive and participative leadership, shared responsibility and accountability, high cooperation and commitment, and effective communication (Emery, 1994).

In DP2 structures, interactive participation, cooperation and commitment are the only viable way to accomplish anything. A great example are the ‘mingas’ in the Andes mountains.

As Fred Emery (1995) puts it “Participative design is a redesign of the process of redesigning organizations. DP2 replaces conventional STS [Socio Technical Systems], while offering all the promise that STS sought to but was unable to deliver”.

In DP2 structures there is a balance between the technical system (technosphere) and the social system (participative-democratic ecosphere), i.e., people at work who are continuously learning. This continuous learning by the social systems is what gives DP2 structures the ability to adequately address relevant uncertainties, system discontinuities and negative externalities and proactively and swiftly adapt in a competitive, dynamic and turbulent environment (Emery, M. 1995, 1996).

The building block in a DP2 structure is a self-managing — but not autonomous — work team that creates a non-dominant hierarchy of functions (as opposed to the dominant hierarchy of parts in DP1).

In DP2 structures, the governing relation between two parts is that of “symmetrical dependence”, i.e., the sharing of parts is necessary to both of the parts (Emery, 1977).