Enthalpy as a Measure of the Organizations’ Potential

Abstract

Energy is a universal category and have a relevant meaning for each type of system. For organizations energy is a resource used in the energy exchange process with the external environment. Energy exchange, dissipation, interaction with the external environment by the form of "external part of the structure" of the organization and temperature as an indicator of the effectiveness of this interaction in the context not only economically but also with uncertainty - all this is the result of the second thermodynamics law universality. The development of entropy management concept and the idea of considering organizations as an analogue of a thermodynamic system, which is characterized by energy exchange processes within the system and with the external environment, grounds to the necessity to expand the set of indicators of the organization’ state in this context. The functions of states include enthalpy, that reflects the amount of energy available for transformation into heat according to accepted understanding. Enthalpy in the context of organizations reflects the "available resource" of the system for energy exchange with the external environment and maintaining the structure of the system. The purpose of this study is to substantiate and analyze the enthalpy equation for organizations. This approach is approved by the development of the idea to apply the thermodynamics laws to the management of organizations. In the framework of this study, the equation of enthalpy change based on the Gibbs-Helmholtz equation is proposed. This equation unifies the increase of free energy, entropy and uncertainty (information entropy). Enthalpy in this approach assesses the energy potential of the organization. Formulas for calculating the relevant indicators of changes in the realized energy potential and dissipation are proposed, that, in fact, make it is possible to evaluate the quality of management as the quality of entrepreneurial energy.