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As economies have reopened after the COVID-19 pandemic, resumption of pre-pandemic normalcy in work has not been uniform. For each worker and leader, an essential question is whether the world of work has changed irreversibly, or if prior careers and business models can be resumed. A philosophical inquiry into theories of the world of work provides a framing that separates everyday changes from systems changes.

A metatheoretical approach to world theories from 1942 is revisited. Attention is drawn to systems of knowledge along the dimensions of analytic-deductive treatments, and dispersive-integrative treatments. Socio-Technical Systems relate to Organicism, and Socio-Ecological Systems relate to Contextualism. Reworking a processual philosophy, an alternative World Hypothesis is proposed.

(Con)texturalism-dyadicism reframes causal texture theory as (1) rhythmic pacing; (2) dyadic diachrony; and (3) transformative reifying. New insights into the effects with the onset and passing of the pandemic disruption are gained.

Updating systems theories of socio-technical and socio-ecological perspectives invokes a post-colonial constructivist philosophy that appreciates roots in American pragmatism, ecological anthropology, and Chinese philosophy of science. The emphasis of systems rhythms prioritizes a processual orientation, compatible with a yinyang material-immaterial onto-epistemology.

As the world recovers from the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the changed nature of work is only one of many aspects that been altered. Systems perspectives both of parts inside an organization (i.e. socio-technical individuals in groups) and wholes alongside other wholes (i.e. socio-ecological groups co-responding with their (con)textures) are not independent, but interrelated. Disruption of work systems may result in only incremental adaptation for some, with transformative shifts in world theory for others. Recognizing that organizations change from within, persistent pathologies may be diagnosed.

Systems theories of work from the 1960s were based on pragmatism from the 1940s. The metatheoretical contextualism of Stephen C. Pepper is complemented by a 21st century constructivist philosophy that is post-colonial and non-anthropocentric. Reifying organizational systems theories for audiences founded on a Western philosophy of science requires extended explanations bridging over to a non-Western (i.e. Classical Chinese) lineage.