BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

OBJECTIVES (Multiple) 1)4)

S.S. SANGUPTA and R.L. ACKOFF consider that: "Perhaps the most important problem in the normative analysis of man-nachine systems is the one presented by the multiplicity of objectives" (1965, p.44).

As noted by these authors, this is at least a two-sided problem: It depends on optimization criteria at the management level, but also, in not very decentralized systems, of sub-systems decision makers and even, in some cases, on individual participants objectives.

However, according to SANGUPTA and ACKOFF: "… it is not the existence of multiple objectives but the uncoordinated pursuit of these that typically causes conflicts within an organization". And: "The complexity that arises out of the pursuit of multiple objectives is due to the fact that there are interactions among the goals that are defined either for the system or its subfunctions" (Ibid.).

As stated by T.R. BURNS and L.D. MEEKER: "… multiple objectives cannot be satisfied simultaneously… No one course of action or outcome will maximize the achievement of – or possibly even manage to accomplish – all the objectives" (1976, p.114).

All this suggests that policies should be based on a sound perception by all the members of the organization of the objectives, not only those of the managers, but also those of the other members of the organization. Moreover, a good understanding of the global organization as a system and in systemic terms is a must, as well as at least a minimal consensus.

J.G. MILLER taxonomy of subsystems and translevel hypothesis could be very useful to such a discovery.

Heterarchy and Holography as a metaphor

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]


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