Underlying Assumptions of Several Traditions in Systems Science

1. 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

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

3. Primary Determinants of Individual Worldview • Observation – Objective or Perspectival • Unit of Analysis – Reductionism or Holism • Causation – Direct or Mutual

4. self-organization observation causality reflexivity environment unit of analysis determinism Philosophical Assumptions

5. Systems Science Traditions • Operations research (systems analysis) • Cybernetics • Total Quality Management • Organizational Learning • General Systems Theory • System Dynamics

6. 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

10. Perspectival Observation • The 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).

11. 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

12. 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

13. Knowing subjects • Business School rankings – BW • “Jumbo House” • “The Englishman Who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain” • “Sandbagging”

14. Beta change • Diversity training • Crime reporting

15. Other Science 2 challenges • Screen refresh rates – Google position • Stephen Jay Gould • Induced traffic • My blood pressure

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