Negentropy: Energy Creating Tools for Organizational Development.

ORGANIZATIONAL change; ENERGY dissipation; SOCIAL systems

Negentropy is a construct drawn from physics that can be conceptualized as the opposite of energy losses associated with normal organizational life. Over time, physical systems tend to "wind down" or entropy, eventually into disintegration. The application of negentropy to social systems, metaphorically, is the primary purpose of this paper—to propose negentropy as a tool to fight energy loss and consequent organizational disintegration. The application of negentropy to organizations and the limitations of that application are explored. Four specific tools for energy-creation are briefly reviewed. The theoretical assertion in this paper is that negentropy can be a powerful tool for sustainable, progressive models of organizational advancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)