Work Organization and Problem Solving

Abstract

This paper presents preliminary results of an ongoing research project, part of a larger study of the “Reflective Organization,” a cybernetic organizational model intended to increase a firm’s flexibility by utilizing employees’ problem solving capacity (see Nolte 2007, 2010). In order for such a model to succeed, the work organization needs to provide an unusually high level of autonomy to the basic units the firm consists of. The individual position identified with the single employee is regarded as the basic unit in this sense. Since the core problem is to transfer the individuals’ problem-solving capacity to the level of the firm as a whole, the integration of the basic units is predicated on intense flows of information.