The Organizational Regime: Toward a Generative Theory of Collective Form

Organizational research describes organizations with great precision through what they contain, and has yet to define the form itself, which persists when the parts are replaced and can stop acting as one while every part remains. The paper proposes a construct for that form, the organizational regime, drawn on four coupled dimensions and observed through people, assets, leadership and mission. A candidate mechanism, the element pathway, yields eight propositions. Three requirements for a theory of the organization as a generated form are derived, and physics is admitted only where it answers them, relation by relation and under test. The paper closes with what would falsify the framework and what a test would require.

Pravia-Sarabia, E. (2026). The Organizational Regime: Toward a Generative Theory of Collective Form. Preprint, SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.7546381

@misc{praviasarabia2026regime,
  author       = {Pravia-Sarabia, Enrique},
  title        = {The Organizational Regime: Toward a Generative
                  Theory of Collective Form},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {Preprint, SSRN},
  doi          = {10.2139/ssrn.7546381},
  url          = {https://ssrn.com/abstract=7546381},
  note         = {Version 8, October 2026. CC BY 4.0}
}

The doctoral work in atmospheric physics followed one chain, from the activation of individual particles to the organization of the system they feed. That chain is the one Palmsight transfers.

1. Pravia-Sarabia, E., Gómez-Navarro, J. J., Jiménez-Guerrero, P., & Montávez, J. P. (2021). Influence of sea salt aerosols on the development of Mediterranean tropical-like cyclones. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 21(17), 13353–13368. doi:10.5194/acp-21-13353-2021

   The composition of the smallest elements can change the organization and intensity of a self-sustaining form. The element pathway is modelled on this result.

2. Pravia-Sarabia, E., Gómez-Navarro, J. J., Jiménez-Guerrero, P., & Montávez, J. P. (2020). TITAM (v1.0): The Time-Independent Tracking Algorithm for Medicanes. Geoscientific Model Development, 13(12), 6051–6075. doi:10.5194/gmd-13-6051-2020

   Identifying a coherent form and following it through time in noisy fields, the problem Palmsight poses for organizations. Open software (doi:10.5281/zenodo.3874416).

3. Pravia-Sarabia, E., Halifa-Marín, A., Gómez-Navarro, J. J., Palacios-Peña, L., Jiménez-Guerrero, P., & Montávez, J. P. (2022). On the role of aerosols in the production of orographically-induced extreme rainfall in near-maritime environments. Atmospheric Research, 268, 106001. doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2021.106001

   From particle activation to system-level precipitation when the environment forces the system.

4. Pravia-Sarabia, E., Montávez, J. P., Halifa-Marín, A., Jiménez-Guerrero, P., & Gómez-Navarro, J. J. (2023). The role of aerosol concentration on precipitation in a winter extreme mixed-phase system: The case of Storm Filomena. Remote Sensing, 15(5), 1398. doi:10.3390/rs15051398

   How the number of particles drawing on the same supply changes the outcome of the whole.

Co-authored

1. Halifa-Marín, A., Pravia-Sarabia, E., Torres-Vázquez, M. A., Trigo, R., Vicente-Serrano, S. M., Jerez, S., Turco, M., Jiménez-Guerrero, P., & Montávez, J. P. (2025). Unparalleled EA-like leading mode of variability in the early 20th century highlights the need for understanding non-stationarity in the North Atlantic climate system. Atmospheric Research, 314, 107796. doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2024.107796

2. Halifa-Marín, A., Torres-Vázquez, M. A., Pravia-Sarabia, E., Lemus-Cánovas, M., Jiménez-Guerrero, P., & Montávez, J. P. (2022). A multivariate-driven approach for disentangling the reduction in near-natural Iberian water resources post-1980. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 26(16), 4251–4263. doi:10.5194/hess-26-4251-2022

3. Jerez, S., Palacios-Peña, L., Gutiérrez, C., Jiménez-Guerrero, P., López-Romero, J. M., Pravia-Sarabia, E., & Montávez, J. P. (2021). Sensitivity of surface solar radiation to aerosol–radiation and aerosol–cloud interactions over Europe in WRFv3.6.1 climatic runs with fully interactive aerosols. Geoscientific Model Development, 14(3), 1533–1551. doi:10.5194/gmd-14-1533-2021

4. Halifa-Marín, A., Lorente-Plazas, R., Pravia-Sarabia, E., Montávez, J. P., & Jiménez-Guerrero, P. (2021). Atlantic and Mediterranean influence promoting an abrupt change in winter precipitation over the southern Iberian Peninsula. Atmospheric Research, 253, 105485. doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2021.105485

5. Palacios-Peña, L., Fast, J. D., Pravia-Sarabia, E., & Jiménez-Guerrero, P. (2020). Sensitivity of aerosol optical properties to the aerosol size distribution over central Europe and the Mediterranean Basin using the WRF-Chem v3.9.1.1 coupled model. Geoscientific Model Development, 13(12), 5897–5915. doi:10.5194/gmd-13-5897-2020