Gerard Endenburg (born 1933) is a Dutch entrepreneur, who developed the
Sociocratic Circle Organisation Method (SCM), which is a decision-making method for governing and managing organizations and societies based on
equivalence and draws inspiration from
cybernetics
Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causality, such as feedback, in regulatory and purposive systems. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causal feedback, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson m ...
. Endenburg was inspired by the idea of
sociocracy
Sociocracy is a theory of governance that seeks to create psychologically safe environments and productive organizations. It draws on the use of consent, rather than majority voting, in discussion and decision-making by people who have a shar ...
of
Kees Boeke
Cornelis "Kees" Boeke (25 September 1884 3 July 1966) was a Dutch reformist educator, Quaker missionary and pacifist. He is best known for his popular essay/book '' Cosmic View'' (1957) which presents a seminal view of the universe, from the ga ...
.
Biography
Endenburg was born in
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
in 1933.
He was a
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
, and attended a Quaker boarding school, the
hildren's Community Workshop where he was influenced by Kees Boeke and his wife Betty Cadbury and the ideas of sociocracy.
The school involved students in consensus decision-making.
He became general manager of his family's engineering company, Endenburg Elektrotechniek BV, in the mid-1960s, and in the 1970s started pioneering and applying the sociocratic method of organizing within the company.
[Quarter, J. (2000) ''Beyond the Bottom Line: Socially Innovative Business Owners'', Greenwood Press, p. 53-66.] In 1978, Endenburg founded the Sociocratic Center Netherlands to develop and implement the sociocratic approach in other organizations, serving as its director.
In 1992, Endenburg obtained a doctoral degree from the
University of Twente
The University of Twente (Dutch: ''Universiteit Twente''; , abbr. ) is a public technical university located in Enschede, Netherlands.
The university has been placed in the top 170 universities in the world by multiple central ranking tables. ...
, based on his dissertation ''Sociocratie als Sociaal Ontwerp'', translated into English as ''Sociocracy as Social Design''. Endenburg was an honorary professor in Organizational Learning at
Maastricht University
Maastricht University (abbreviated as UM; nl, Universiteit Maastricht) is a public research university in Maastricht, Netherlands. Founded in 1976, it is the second youngest of the thirteen Dutch universities.
In 2021, 22,383 students studied at ...
.
Bibliography
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See also
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Double linking
A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another.
Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to:
Film and television
* Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character
* Th ...
*
Thesis circle
{{no footnotes, date=April 2017
A thesis circle involves a number of students and at least one professor, lecturer or instructor who collaborate in supervising and coaching final (undergraduate or MSc) projects. This tool for supervising student ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Endenburg, Gerard
1933 births
Businesspeople from Rotterdam
Living people
University of Twente alumni