The Institute for Social Organics is affiliated with the Department of Economics at Alanus University in Alfter near Bonn. It is dedicated to researching economic and social phenomena, with particular consideration given to Rudolf Steiner’s humanities-based scholarship. The “social-organic” method, to which Steiner provided important impulses, makes it possible to complement and expand the results of established economic sciences.
Social Organics regards the economy as an organ of the social organism, which is represented by society as a whole. Unlike a natural organism, which always develops characteristically according to its creative impulse, the archetype impressed upon it, the social organism requires constant conscious shaping through the ideas and actions of its members, the acting human beings.
This is based on an image of the human being that does not regard people merely as beings of impression or behavior, but understands them as creative and free beings of expression who can act meaningfully out of insight.
In Social Organics, economic phenomena are understood through the formative principles that bring them about, that is, dynamically and in relation to the respective process of emergence. Unlike in static or mechanical models of economics shaped by neoclassical assumptions, complex economic interrelationships can thus actually be understood and purposeful recommendations for action derived from them.
Research focus areas
Basic social-organic research
Basic research includes the academic examination and further development of the social-organic approach and its positioning within anthroposophical and economic discourse. Special attention is paid to spiritual-cultural impulses in economic life. One goal of social-organic research is to arrive at concepts that are close to reality and context-dependent, and thus at new approaches that do justice to dynamic economic life and are better able to grasp the creative impulses that bring about processes. To this end, the Institute for Social Organics works with companies in which social-organic concepts are implemented.
Leadership
Social Organics expands the concept of employee leadership by three further dimensions of leadership: “leadership by the customer,” “self-leadership,” and “meaning leadership.”
Employee leadership in the sense of the social-organic idea of leadership understands itself as accompanying the employee in their self-leadership and freedom. The basis for this is an attitude that tolerates the other as an individual and believes in their individual capacity for development. As a practical aid to orientation and reflection, the model of “Situational Employee Leadership” was developed, distinguishing between different leadership competencies and forms of communication and collaboration.
Corporate culture
A realignment of entrepreneurial activities is essential. Only if the economy fundamentally lives the issue of sustainability in its thinking and actions can the future of humanity and the earth be secured. This necessary change calls for a radically new way of thinking about the economy. Its purpose is not primarily the maximization of success, but above all the maximization of meaning.
Value Creation Accounting (VCA)
Value Creation Accounting (VCA) is a management and control instrument of internal corporate accounting. Its aim is to present performance interdependencies between service providers and service recipients transparently and clearly. The focus is on performance flows. In this respect, VCA differs fundamentally from conventional forms of cost accounting. Everything that contributes on the company side to the creation of a service or product is viewed not as a cost factor but as a contribution that flows into the value of a product. This terminology leads to a different view of employees: while they appear in conventional cost accounting models as costs to be minimized as much as possible, VCA focuses on the fact that value is always created through the contributions of employees. Opposite this stand the customers, who express their appreciation through the purchase or non-purchase of the services provided. Mapping value flows and applying meaningful terminology is an important goal of VCA.
The work of the Institute for Social Organics in the field of value creation accounting focuses in particular on the following priorities:
- Research into the social-organic foundations of VCA
- Definition of the tasks and functions of VCA within the framework of research residencies in companies
- Analysis of the effects of VCA as an applied performance accounting method within the framework of research residencies in companies
- Promotion of VCA as an alternative to traditional methods of performance accounting
- Investigation of the interaction between VCA and practiced leadership behavior, and determination of the necessary framework conditions with a focus on the spiritual-cultural dimension of economic activity
- Further development of VCA as a social-organic management instrument according to the countercurrent principle
