Axion: A Three-Axis Model of Organisational Coherence - Scope, Ontology, and Boundary Conditions

This paper introduces Axion, a three-axis structural model for diagnosing organisational coherence. Axion addresses a persistent failure mode in contemporary organisations: interventions that target structure (Axis 1), regulatory grammar (Axis 2), or legitimacy (Axis 3) in isolation, while assuming other axes will accommodate the change. They rarely do. Drawing on cybernetic systems theory (Beer, Ashby), organisational design theory (Jaques, Emery & Trist), and institutional logics, Axion provides a diagnostic grammar for locating where responsibility domains, authority boundaries, and legitimacy conditions misalign across recursive organisational levels. The model's scope is bounded to recursive socio-technical organisations where sustained organisational functioning requires absorbing variance under a teleological constraint. It does not address purely voluntary associations, temporary projects, or cultural movements. This paper establishes conceptual priority for the Axion model, defines its ontological foundations, and explicitly states its boundary conditions and limitations.