Viruses are installed in organizations when the personal goals of their members prevail over the goals of the group in the case of entrepreneurs and of the mission and vision of institutions.

Viruses can be cured or palliated. When they are cured they strengthen the company and the immune system of the company.

When they are palliated but not cured they generate a chronic syndrome in the company.

Chronic syndromes of companies are considered as characteristics by butterfly companies and by those members of institutions that despite the fact that they are working in such institutions, they do not “belong” to them.

We have identified two different types of viruses in companies: Business Virus Type “A” and Business Virus Type “B”.

The virus type “A” is the virus in which the purpose of an activity is substituted by the achievement of personal benefits for the participant.

The virus type “B” is the virus in which the energy conservation function of the activity is substituted by the personal goals of a participant.

An example: The Structure of Object Driven Management

Object Driven Management implies managing the integration of the hardware, software and peopleware of a company.

This implies that the peopleware is the purpose of management. The active function is exerted by the software and the energy conservation function is given by the available hardware. Unicist Business Objects are part of the hardware.

The operational perceivable aspects are the existence of hardware and software. Peopleware is not evident, it implies intentions that cannot be observable and can only be measured by results.

As biological viruses need to be accepted by the body, business viruses need to be accepted by the organization. Therefore, in order to be accepted, business viruses need to show the same observable aspects that are already within the organization. In this case viruses necessarily show the existence of the hardware and the software of the company.

About Business Virus Type “A”

It is the virus that substitutes the purpose of a concept by a personal benefit from it.

In the case of Object Driven Management, Virus “A” is shown as follows:

This generates the inexistence of the integration between software and hardware.

This produces anarchy or inaction within the organization and the need of an authoritarian leader to manage the conflicts produced.

This lowers productivity, quality and reliability and therefore the value generation is diminished.

Peter Belohlavek

NOTE: The Unicist Research Institute was the pioneer in complexity science research and became a private global decentralized leading research organization in the field of human adaptive systems. http://www.unicist.org