The Distinctions within Organizations: Luhmann from a Cultural Perspective

Abstract

Cultural theories of organization generally focus on deciphering and deconstructing forms of meaning and social constructions of reality used in organizational behaviour. In line with this approach, Luhmann emphasizes the important role of distinctions and semantics for the production and orientation of organizations. However, producing organizations is, in his view, not just a matter of reality construction. It means the actual production of a specific social system using specific distinctions in recursively related communications. This paper first shows that Luhmann’s writings are helpful to identify the constitutive distinctions for organization as a specific type of social system. Relating Luhmann’s theory of organization to his theory of functionally differentiated society, it identifies, second, the specifying distinctions that are responsible for the specific problem orientations typical of modern organizations. In a third step, it shows how the distinctions and schemes used in organizations fit into and contribute to a general functionalist culture of modernity.