Organisational Emergence – Interdisciplinary Perspectives against the Backdrop of the Digital Transformation

Abstract

Organisational emergence is of key interest in organisational theory. Most of the present studies, however, analyse the emergence of changes in already existing phenomena such as, for example, how strategies or organisational routines are subject to change. In contrast, previous research in organisational theory has rarely addressed organisational emergence in essence (i.e., from scratch) and might benefit from looking beyond the confines of one’s own discipline. To address this void, we draw on the case of digital emergent self-organised organisations as an exemplary form thereof. Emerging organisations in digital environments appear to be created much more spontaneously, and multiple processes occur simultaneously. So, probing into a digital environment allows us to get a fresh perspective on organisational emergence and to advance previous theorising by incorporating notions from the fields of leadership and entrepreneurship.