Open and closed organizations - on the validity of a questionnaire (FOGO, Questionnaire on the openness and closure in organizations)

Drawing on Karl Popper's distinction between open and closed societies, we present a questionnaire to measure openness and closure in organizations (FOGO). Based on a survey involving 361 employees of both profit and non-profit organizations, our hypothesis is confirmed that the construct consists of three dimensions which are linked in a pattern. Openness can be interpreted as a strategy to solve problems which is triggered by competition and reinforced by increased innovativity. In terms of balancing between the poles of openness and closure, our results show that organizations prefer functional differentation (more open and more closed subsystems within the same organization) to dimensional differentiation (different degrees of openness and closure referring to the different dimensions).