Information and Complexity

Johannes Strikwerda ()
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Johannes Strikwerda: University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Business School

Chapter 6 in Organized Complexity in Business, 2023, pp 97-138 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Complexity cannot be dealt with without a proper organization of information. Information reduces entropy while maintaining the state of complexity. This organization of information requires a good understanding of what information is, respectively, a theory of information. The mathematical definition of information, based on Shannon’s mathematical theory of communication is too simple to deal with the various types of complexity. This chapter presents a more differentiated model of information elaborating on the concept of control as defined in cybernetics. Various types of information are introduced like discursive information, goal-information, axiological information, material information, eidetic information, allelopathic information, effect information, pragmatic information, and reproductive information. With that, a model of types of information is presented which undergirds the concept of the information-based organization. This model is also a meta-model through which well-known but somewhat intuitive management concepts now can be logically interlinked, replacing the Weberian bureaucratic hierarchy with a hierarchy of types of information, with goal information at the top and reproductive information at the bottom. This also lays the foundations for a model of governance and administrative information space beyond conventional management information. Also, the relation between data and information becomes clear in operational, programmable ways, as relevant for AI and machine learning. This differentiated model of governance and administrative information explains why in the contemporary economy the organization of information precedes the structure, in the Weberian sense, of an organization design.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-25237-2_6

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