Abstract: The purpose of this article is to resolve the apparent opposition between the container metaphor of organisation and the idea that organisations are constituted by communication. Drawing on works by Niklas Luhmann, George Spencer Brown, and Louis Kaufman, I develop a dynamic, communicative concept of containment, or “continence”. Using this concept, I demonstrate how organisations can simultaneously be constituted by and contain communication (within their environment). I conclude that management and organisation researchers must adopt an organisational view of organisations that first abstracts from most of the contents of this self-contained container, before reloading it with diverse forms and topics of organisational communication.

Keywords: organisation theory; container metaphor of organisation; social systems theory; laws of form.

This article is available for download here or on the Management Revue website.

Recommended citation: Roth S. (2025). What is in organisation? Contents of a self-contained container. Management Revue, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp. 39590 [ESCI, CABS**, VHB***].

This article is part of the virtual special Luhmann Conference 2024 issue of Management Revue on the theme of The Guiding Distinctions of Management and Organisation Research.