Openness as Organizing Principle: Introduction to the Special Issue

Area of Science:

• Organizational Studies
• Management Science
• Information Science

Background:

• Openness is a pervasive organizational concept across domains like open data, government, and innovation.
• Discussions on openness are often siloed within specific fields, limiting cross-domain knowledge exchange.
• A unified understanding of openness is needed to build cumulative insights.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and define "Open Organizing" as a general principle for studying openness.
• To foster cross-domain conversations and knowledge sharing on organizational openness.
• To establish a framework for analyzing openness across diverse organizational contexts.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis and definition of "Open Organizing".
• Identification of key dimensions of Open Organizing: transparency/opacity, inclusion/exclusion, and decision rights distribution.
• Framing Open Organizing as a design problem with epistemic, normative, and political challenges.

Main Results:

• "Open Organizing" is defined as a dynamic principle characterized by transparency, inclusion, and distributed decision rights.
• This framework allows for a generalized understanding of openness beyond specific domains.
• Open Organizing presents a core design challenge with multifaceted implications.

Conclusions:

• Investigating openness as "Open Organizing" provides a unified lens for cross-domain research.
• The proposed framework highlights the inherent design challenges associated with implementing openness.
• Further research should explore the epistemic, normative, and political dimensions of Open Organizing.