A curated reading list compiled by Trond Hjorteland, originally posted on LinkedIn.
Books
- Emery M – Searching
- Emery – Futures we’re in
- Emery M (ed.) – Participative Design for Participative Democracy
- Stokes, A – Empowered Agile Transformation [3 chapters on OST]
- Holman et al – The Change Handbook [3 chapters on OST]
- Mohr & Amelsvoort (ed.) – Co-Creating Humane and Innovative Organisations [chapter on OST]
- Boonstra (ed.) – Dynamics of Organizational Change and Learning [chapter on OST]
Papers
- Aughton – An Open Systems Thinking Perspective on Agile Transformation [easy intro — talk recording]
- de Guerre – Open Systems Theory and the Two-Stage Model of Active Adaptation
- Emery M – Open or Closed Systems Bridging the Gap (emcsr Vienna 2012)
- de Guerre & Emery M – Modern Forms of Laissez-Faire Organization
- Emery M – The current version of Emery’s open systems theory
- Emery & Emery – Participative Design – Work and Community Life (1974)
- Emery M – Would the real participative design workshop (PDW) stand up please? [loads of useful tips on running DP2s]
- Emery M – The Search Conference (Tavistock anthology 1997)
- Emery M – The Search Conference in the USA Today: Clarifying some confusions [on Future Search]
- Emery & Trist – The Causal Texture of Organizational Environments [classic]
- Trist & Bamforth – Some Social and Psychological Consequences of the Longwall Method of Coal-Getting [THE classic]
- Cherns – Principles of Sociotechnical Design Revisited
Anthologies
- Trist – The Evolution of Socio-technical systems
- Van Eijnatten – An Anthology of the Socio-Technical Systems Design Paradigm
- Mumford – The story of socio-technical design – reflections on its successes, failures and potential
- Pasmore et al – Reflections: Sociotechnical Systems Design and Organization Change
Websites
- www.socialsciencethatactuallyworks.com [Fred and Merrelyn Emery’s site, the authoritative source for OST]
- Tavistock anthologies
Other Material
- Tony Stewart’s summary of the Emery-Trist Causal Textures paper, notes on Search Conference and personal experience trying to build a business around Emery’s principles:
- Annotated Emery and Trist Causal Texture paper
- The Search Conference
- McQuitty Causal Path Statistics
- Participative Workplace Design
- Organisational Thermometer
- Case Study of Q Research
- Art of Prophecy