DEMO: Towards a discipline of organisation engineering

Dynamic Essential Modelling of Organisation (DEMO) is a theory about the ‘construction’ and the ‘operation’ of organisations, that is rooted in the Communicative Action Paradigm regarding human communication and action. In this theory, the ‘working principle’ of an organisation consists of the entering into and the complying with commitments between human beings, where authority, responsibility and competence play an important role. The ‘construction’ of an organisation consists of a coherent whole of transactions, i.e., recurrent patterns of communication and action in which the commitments are entered into and complied with. DEMO is also a methodology for modelling, (re)designing and (re)engineering organisations based on that theory. Up to now some thirty projects have been carried out with DEMO. These projects are of very different kinds and they have been carried out in various types of organisations. The success factor has been the same for all these projects, namely the practical relevance of the concepts of DEMO, as well as their clear and precise definitions. Both managers and employees appear to be able to participate readily in identifying and understanding problems, and in generating appropriate and feasible solutions.