Vicious Circles in Organizations

Michael Masuch This paper explores vicious circles in organizations. Departing from some elementary notions of action theory and cybernetics, it analyzes the dynamics, the clustering, and the survival chances of vicious circles. It argues that the action perspective, taken to its logical conclusion, implies that many structural suboptimalities of organizations, such as underperformance, stagnation, or decay, are caused by vicious circles.*