Underlying Assumptions of Several Traditions in Systems Science

Eric B. Dent, Ph.D.University of North Carolina, Pembroke

World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics, and Informatics

http://www.uncp.edu/home/dente

PremiseSystems science is not a unified field Systems science is not a unified field

because different systems science because different systems science traditions are making different traditions are making different philosophical assumptions. Systems philosophical assumptions. Systems thinking is more a practical than a thinking is more a practical than a theoretical approach which doesn’t theoretical approach which doesn’t naturally surface philosophical naturally surface philosophical assumptions. assumptions.

Primary Determinants of Individual Worldview

Observation – Objective or Perspectival

Unit of Analysis – Reductionism or Holism

Causation – Direct or Mutual

Philosophical Assumptionsself-organization

observation

causality

reflexivity

environment

unit of analysis

determinism

Systems Science Traditions

Operations research (systems analysis)

Cybernetics

Total Quality Management

Organizational Learning

General Systems Theory

System Dynamics

Method: Sources Examined

OR - Handbook of Systems Analysis

Cyb - The Tree of Knowledge

TQM - 4th Generation Management

OL - Organizational Learning II

GST - General Systems Theory

SD - The Electronic Oracle

unit env caus refl indt obs sOr

OR yes yes yes no yes no no

TQM yes yes yes yes no no no

OL yes yes yes yes no yes no

Cyb yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

SD yes yes yes no no no no

GST yes yes yes yes yes no no

Perspectival ObservationThe message is not that reality doesn’t exist, nor that it can be anything you want it to be. The message is that reality is not the same as your observation of it: that is just one shadow out of many. Reality is whatever casts all those interrelated shadows, and you can infer some aspects of its structure by looking at how different shadows are interrelated (Stewart and Cohen, 1997, 200).

English/American vernacular- where you stand depends on where you sit- beauty is in the eye of the beholder- wearing rose-colored glasses- a self-fulfilling prophecy- it's the blind man and the elephant- baseball umpire -"the pitch ain't nothin' until I call it.“- there are two sides to every story- is the glass of water half full or half empty?- perception is reality- to someone with a hammer, everything looks like a nail- you tend to find whatever you go looking for- Cosi e se vi pare - “So it is if it seems that way to you.”- “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2

PERSPECTIVAL OBSERVATIONin PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

performance measurement problematic because of subjectivity

Interdependent work

Deming - full set of behaviors not possible to objectify

Florida Teacher awards

360-appraisal

Tichy and Bennis - Judgment

Knowing subjects

Business School rankings – BW

“Jumbo House”

“The Englishman Who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain”

“Sandbagging”

Beta change

Diversity training

Crime reporting

Other Science 2 challenges

Screen refresh rates – Google position

Stephen Jay Gould

Induced traffic

My blood pressure

ConclusionPerhaps an integration and synthesis of the field will occur if the different traditions coalesce around a shared set of underlying assumptions, such as reflexivity.