In this article, we draw on theories of social differentiation to show that functional differentiation is not about the division of work and organization, but rather about a multiplication of horizons for decision-making. We argue that a systematic management of functional differentiation makes...

Computer communication is revolutionizing modern society to the same extend as the invention of writing or the printing press have unsettled the archaic or the ancient society, respectively. In the present article, this idea will be exemplified by a demonstration of how the Google Ngram viewer...

In this article, we draw on established views of CSR dysfunctionalities to show how and why CSR is regularly observed to be both shaped by and supportive of capitalism. We proceed to show that these dysfunctionalities are maintained by both the pro- and anticapitalist approaches to CSR, which...

In observing a capitalist lifestyle of addiction to relentless growth responsible for an imminent self-extinction of the human race, environmentalism is a particularly problem-centred movement. The purpose of this article is to address and manage the risk that the movement is co-dependent on and...

Purpose: Are entrepreneurial opportunities are discovered or created? The debate around this question has crucial implications for successful organizational change management in the business world. The present conceptual article transcends this debate by embedding the concept of the...

In this chapter, we present a sociological perspective on culture in general and on issues of business and religion in a management and organizational culture context in particular. We draw on social differentiation theories as well as culturomic big data research to challenge the popular idea...

Using the updated Google Book corpus dataset generated in July 2012, we analyze the largest available corpus of digitalized books to review social macro trends such as the secularization, politicization, economization, and mediatization of society. These familiar trend statements are tested...

Even the sharpest problem focus cannot help but sharpen the problem. Thus, the key to our understanding of alternatives to capitalism and alternative forms of capitalism is not in the ongoing problematization of the dominance of the economic principle. Rather, the question addressed in the...

Modern social sciences in imply rather than apply functional differentiation and remain preoccupied with the cross-tabling of variables associated with earlier forms of differentiation. The key variables of modernity hence remain blind spots or theoretically motivated constants of most...

Ludwig von Bertalanffy decisively shaped open systems theory as challenge and alternative to the then-dominant theories of closed systems. This strategic positioning and its success have abetted frequent and frequently implicit moralisations of openness and closeness. In this article, we draw on...