Two Lyapunov Functions for Flexible Organizations

Since the second half of the past century, increasingly flexible organizational forms are appearing among firms. However, while hierarchies are easily described, too few mathematical tools are available for flexible organizations. In this article, two Lyapunov functions are proposed in order to assess the state and trend of flexible organizations. The first of these functions is based on information waste. The second function is based on duplication of operations. The underlying idea is that firms tend towards organizational configurations where waste of information and duplication of operations are minimized.