The question of Inclusion and Exclusion is the modern version of the traditional social question, the question of participation, equal opportunities and social inequality. However, the question of Inclusion and Exclusion is also the genuine question of organization. Organizations decide upon membership and therefore differentiate between inside and outside (Baecker 2001). Exclusion is the normal case for organizations because only selected members are part of it. In contrast, Inclusion is the common case and basic demand of most European societies. Therefore, opportunities for participation have to be provided for all citizens in liberal democratic societies. With regard to organizational membership, the societal demands of justice and equality seem to be suspended by organizations. Consequently, societal differences are based on organizational membership and organizational decision-making (Luhmann 1994).

Ongoing processes of digitalization and reorganization entail changes of procedures of organizational decision-making. The automation of organizational tasks and structures shifts the organizational pairing of person and structure towards remodeling structural parameters. Information processing software-solutions, which are constantly expanding in organizations, minimize the human scope of decision-making (Mormann 2013, 2016). If the scope of decision-making is pre-structured by algorithms and software, then societal developments affecting organizations can only be perceived by procedures of technical information processing, implying that the relevance of persons seems to be on the decline.

The digital project – aiming at eliminating organizational malfunctions while being most flexible at the same time – leads to an implementation of a calculation based functional logic in organizations. Thus, organizational management and leadership face new dimensions of ethical responsibility (Nassehi 2014). On the one hand, the question of corporate ethics has turned into a question of ethics of algorithms (Mittelstadt et al. 2016). On the other hand, the role of the person and the non-calculable remnant is increasing. These developments could spur a debate that the paper intends to initiate by discussing concepts of participation, stakeholder involvement and multi-perspectivity.

These concepts are not trying to eliminate contingency but to use contingency as well as the potential of persons (Schröer/Wendt 2017). With regard to the above mentioned relation of organization and society, the question of future viability of organizations seems to be the question of the future viability of societies as well.

The paper applies an update of a systems theoretical framework to illustrate the dynamics and trends of organizational and societal change, which are caused by digitalization and information processing, and comments on their reciprocity. A systematical differentiation between information processing, decision-making and communication reveals distinct functional logics. Document analysis of descriptions of managerial concepts serves to initiate a referencing discussion.

The paper results in reflections on the reciprocity of organizational and societal change and a proposal on a theoretical framework to analyze this interrelation.

Baecker, Dirk (2001): Der Witz der Organisation. In: Dievernich, Frank E. P. (Hg): Kommunikationsausbrüche. Vom Witz und Humor der Organisation. Konstanz, S. 221-232. Luhmann, Niklas (1994): Die Gesellschaft und ihre Organisationen. In: Derlien, Hans-Ulrich et al. (Hg.): Systemrationalität und Partialinteresse. Festschrift für Renate Mayntz. Baden-Baden, S. 189-201. Mittelstadt, Brent Daniel et al. (2016): The ethics of algorithms: Mapping the debate. In: Big Data and Society. DOI: 10.1177/2053951716679679 Mormann, Hannah (2013): Zur informationstheoretischen und organisationstheoretischen Formalisierung von Organisation. In: Passoth, Jan-Hendrik/Wehner, Josef (Hg.): Quoten, Kurven und Profile. Zur Vermessung der sozialen Welt. Wiesbaden, S. 69-86. Mormann, Hannah (2016): Das Projekt SAP. Zur Organisationssoziologie betriebwirtschaftlicher Standardsoftware. Bielefeld. Nassehi, Armin (2014): Arbeit 4.0. Was tun mit dem nicht organisierbaren Rest? In: Nassehi, Armin/Felixberger, Peter (Hg.): Freiheit, Gleichheit, Ausbeutung. Kursbuch 179. Hamburg, S. 135-154. Schröer, Andreas/Wendt, Thomas (2017): Partizipationsorientierung als Forschungsstrategie der Organisationspädagogik. In: Göhlich, Michael/Schröer, Andreas/Weber, Susanne Maria (Hg.): Handbuch Organisationspädagogik. Wiesbaden. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-658-07746-4_29-1