Chapter 4: Carl Weick’s Sense-Making Model

Loose Coupling
Pgs. 116-118

Loose Coupling is a very interesting concept that can be observed in many organizations. Within business we can see how Major organizations such as General Electric employ a strategy of, “Loose Coupling” when they diversify, thus they protect themselves from abrupt changes in the environment. The example which the book provides is also very useful when attempting to grasp the concept of Loose Coupling. Universities by their very nature are loosely coupled entities whose mission is to promulgate an almost universal breadth of knowledge. If Universities narrowly focused on teaching a single subject, a change in the environment in which they operate would put them out of business (i.e. if a University had narrowly focused on teaching Phrenology [the study of personality as determined by the shape of the cranium] they would have been out of business by the 1840’s when many were refuting the findings of the proponents of phrenology). However, the loosely coupled nature of Universities has held them together to such an extent that some of the oldest continuously running organizations are Universities (i.e. University of Paris, Oxford & Salamanca).