Automation or autonomy in organizational design

“… For the first time in History, man is obliged to choosefreely his future and the future of mankind and he is obliged to do so by the very fact that he has for the first time, the freedom hence the responsibility of doing so”. Denis de ROUGEMONT Today there is growing criticism of the Input/Output (I/O) model as a conceptual tool for explaining and understanding how systems are functioning. These models have been particularly useful-mainly in engineering, where simple, static and open systems are involved-but they are, however, unable to explain the functioning of living” and social systems. This paper will present evidence, from various fields, illustrating the relevance of autopoiesis. Furthermore, it will relate the concepts of autonomy and identity to the way in which various social systems function within the environment.