Adopting an external vantage point enables actors to escape locked-in organizational paths.

Evidence

The idea of unlocking organizational paths, therefore, can only work if we put the mechanisms of deterministic pattern reproduction into perspective. In other words, it is necessary to construe and integrate an exogenous perspective—that is, an activity that is not under the regime of path dependence. Such integration of an external lens or—if you like—a “second-order observation” (von Foerster, 1991) enables knowledgeable agents to reflect practices in terms of path dependence and potentially opens a window for path-breaking activities. — Jörg Sydow, Georg Schreyögg, and Jochen Koch, Organizational Path Dependence, 99

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces ‘second-order observation’ (von Foerster) as the mechanism of stepping outside a deterministic regime — jargon worth pinning down.
• XREF: Resonates with systems-theory and cybernetics literature (Luhmann, von Foerster) and with the ‘outside view’ concept in forecasting.