Dr. Frans M. van Eijnatten (1951) is an Associate Professor of Organizational Renewal and Complexity at the Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences (IE&IS), Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), The Netherlands. He has a bachelor/master degree in Organizational Psychology from Tilburg University, The Netherlands (1974 -1978), and a Ph.D. from Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands (1985), dissertation subject: Socio-Technical Task Analyses con-ducted at Philips Industries in four European countries.
He is a member of the Research School for Operations Management and Logistics (BETA), and is engaged in research and development in the domains of human performance management, chaos and complexity in management, and organizational development and change. Some research topics in the last ten years were: Integral Organizational Renewal, Intensive Work, Work/Life Balance, Intelligent Manufacturing and Participative Simulation, Workspace Design, Socio-Technical Aspects of Work-flow Management Systems, Collaborative Networked Organizations, Chaordic Systems Thinking, Learning Organization, and Sustainable Work.
His original research interest was in Socio-Technical Systems Design, an ambition he pursued by initiating and co-ordinating Ph.D. design-oriented action research projects in R&D and information systems design. He produced several English- language reviews on the subject as well as a com-prehensive bibliography of the paradigm.
Currently, Dr. Van Eijnatten is exploring the implications of Chaos and Complexity theories for Socio-Technical Systems Design and Organizational Renewal (i.e., ‘Chaordic Systems Thinking’ – CST). He co-edited two guest issues about CST for the Journal of Organizational Change Management and The Learning Organization, and published an overview of Chaos and Complexity in Organization and Management in the Revue Sciences de Gestion. He is founder and coordinator of the European Chaos and Complexity in Organizations Network ECCON, and convenor of the annual meetings of this network.
He participated in several European-Union-funded research and development programs (4th, 5th Framework: Esprit, Brite- EuRam, IST, IMS), and is reviewer for the 6th/ 7th Framework (‘New and Emerging Science and Technology’ – NEST, Pathfinder activity), European Commission, Brussels. He served as an invited expert to Framework 6 Integrated Project: European Collaborative Networked Organizations Leadership Initiative (ECOLEAD). In 2004 and 2010, he was a visiting research fellow at Yokohama National University, Graduate School of Environment and Information Sciences, Eco-Technology Systems Laboratory, Yokohama, Japan.
Dr. Van Eijnatten is a lecturer, coach, and project supervisor in TU/e’s bachelor and master programmes – Innovation Management (IM) and Operations Management and Logistics (OML) – where he teaches compulsory and elective subjects in socio-technical systems design, organizational behaviour, complexity science, and research methodology. He is teaching methodological design of research for Ph.D. students, and for the TIAS Master of Real Estate (MRE), and the Executive Master of Operations and Supply Chain Excellence (MOS). He is also teaching organizational development and change at TU/e post-graduate level in the Engineering Design Program Logistic Management Systems.
Dr. Van Eijnatten is a Certified Member of the Dutch Accreditation Board for Universities of Professional Education