Entropy meaning1/13/2024 ![]() The accompanying principle of maximum entropy, which lies behind the Second Law, gives explanatory and inferential power to the concept, and promotes entropy as the mother of creativity and evolution. ![]() Hence, we contend that entropy should be used as a mathematical (stochastic) concept as rigorously as possible, free of metaphoric meanings. Exploring the history of the term and many different approaches to it, we show that entropy has a universal stochastic definition, which is not disorder. Popular imagination has loaded “entropy” with almost every negative quality in the universe, in life and in society, with a dominant meaning of disorder and disorganization. While entropy was introduced in the second half of the 19th century in the international vocabulary as a scientific term, in the 20th century it became common in colloquial use. In this respect, the paper contributes to the view of institutional theory as a theory of self-organization. Contrary to the tenets of the institutional work perspective, no intentional efforts of individuals and collective actors are needed to maintain institutions. It is explained why institutionalization and institutional persistence are what to be expected in the long run and why information entropy contributes to this tendency. Institutionalization is a state of maximum entropy. Institutionalization thus can be seen as a special case of an increase in entropy and a decrease of knowledge. Entropy manifests itself at the level of information processing and corresponds with increasing uncertainty and the decrease of the value of information. Once institutionalization and homogeneity are seen as a product of natural tendencies in the organizational field, the role of entropy becomes clear. It is a theoretical paper that offers an information perspective on institutionalization.Ī mistaken understanding of the nature and role of entropy in the institutional theory is caused by conceptualizing it as a force that counteracts institutional tendencies and acts in opposite direction. The purpose of this paper is to offer a resolution of this theoretical inconsistency by revisiting the meaning of entropy and reconceptualizing institutionalization from an information-theoretic point of view. Once introduced and conceptualized as a factor that causes erosion and decay of social institutions and subsequent deinstitutionalization, the notion of entropy is at odds with predictions of institutional isomorphism and seems to directly contradict the tendency toward ever-increasing institutionalization.
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