Ontology and Diversity of Soft Structures: Semantic Dimensions in Decision-Making

Purpose: Scientific literature addresses the essence of the diversity of Nature, meaning its ontology and structures (both hard and soft). Studying these structures provides opportunities to gain knowledge about Nature for both cognitive and utilitarian purposes. One of these purposes is broadly understood Theory of Organization and Management. This article aims to present the role of soft structures in explaining the representation of Design/Methodology/Approach: In scientific inquiry, significant emphasis is placed on the concept of information, its role, and its importance in science and everyday life. This text will also discuss the second dimension of our reality—ourselves—our structures of thinking and communication in social processes, and their role in management practice. These so-called soft structures have a broad presence in reality and carry semantic significance, especially for humans in understanding our environment. The concept of information also plays a role in understanding hard structures and, therefore, in understanding ourselves. This study employs a critical analysis of the relevant literature, presenting the views of various scholars from fundamental fields of knowledge that address these issues. Practical Implications: The article presents the view that fractality and generativity introduce new perspectives on soft structures compared to classical methods. These two scientific categories utilize formal operationalization (mathematical and logical). Originality/Value: The article first discusses the content from a methodological perspective and then addresses the form, upon which hard structures (physics, technology, and others) are based. The originality lies in combining fractality with generativity, an approach that is absent in the existing literature in an operational sense.