Manageability of complex organisational systems – system-theoretical confines of control

Abstract The task of organisation is based on breaking up complex systems into a number of less complex subsystems where the interfaces are well-determined leading inevitably to hierarchical structures. Therewith, the principle need of precisely predefined targets regarding quality and time frames becomes necessary, which in turn enforces establishing controlling procedures. Meanwhile, it is well accepted that controlling processes are demanding resources and therewith form the cost of organisation. Rarely quantitatively regarded is, however, the need of having further resources ready to repair for detected quality deviations. This paper points out where the system-theoretical limits of control lie, based on a mathematical approach of delayed control where a second-order approximation leads to the introduction of terms of perseverance as well as of dissipative terms. On this background, delayed integral controlling meets the characteristics of a harmonic control system and also suffers it's confines determining the fundamentally limited reaction time. The focus of the article presented here is on the development of realistic scenarios of limited quality deviation situations and their relevance in the light of a fundamental criterion of stability derived from the differential equation of the harmonic control. In this context, we find evidence that partly self-determining concepts, such as e.g. maintained in lean construction, SCRUM and similar others, become favourable, if not superior, to hierarchical approaches.