SYNERGY-NET on http://www.wiredbrain.net/ General Systems In 1967 I was introduced to general systems and the educational business at MIT/Slone and HGSE conference we organized. (also ABT Assoc. did a original model of the Title I, for the evaluation of the new federal programs in education designed by Keppel) Since then I have tried to understand and teach general systems at the Universities of Wisconsin, Cal. State Long Beach, and else where. There are a few understanding that have developed over the years, I like to get your comments. In general system there is a tendency toward balance as in an ecological systems. It is not a machine or electrical engineering problem but more like a medical or biological and environmental framework. Health is defined as balance. (See the work of Rene Dubos) Evolution has a mission- in very general terms, and the species have niches and roles. Edward O. Wilson in Sociobiology discusses these as groves or patterns that create tendencies. Demning discusses it in terms of general systems (overall functions) and specific systems -individual roles. In education it is the difference between (authentic) assessment and testing. Assessment looks a systems characteristics while testing checks the individuals. This is the difference between the forest and the trees. This is the difference between command and control and leadership. A relationship with the organic function of a general system is necessary to really understand and fix the problem. This is the central problem of teaching systems. People want to engineer a solution before they grasp the structural and functional and ideological relationships in open and dynamic systems. Therefore the use of Zen to introduce the idea of Quality, and other attention getting devices to raise the conscience of the totality of interactions. Everything relates to everything else. (Ted Sizer) The whole is more than its parts. Like living systems, organizations and institutions interact in dynamic ways with the environment. Schools exist in a natural and social conditions that include T.V., crime, public attitudes, the business climate, our trade relationships, political actions, religious beliefs, etc. etc. all these impact on schools. Within this vast complexity we can identify central themes and missions. We must maintain focus among all the noise. The quality of human interaction is the central theme. Are the relationships genuine and sincere? Are the actions of the organization based on principals tied to the organic mission of the system? Leaders relate to these themes and communally shared illusions. Since human action depends of a level of belief, faith, trust and hope it is always partly an illusion. It is a necessary illusion. Therefore leaders must be in the world but not of it, understand the illusions or myths at underline human action but also have a meaningful relationship with reality. Benefit/cost models The traditional input out put model can not handle the complex reality of business, government, education or other social choices. This traditional model is: |--------------------------| | | INPUTS --- | PROCESS | ______OUTPUTS | | | |__________________________| | + make more | _______________FEEDBACK__________________| - make less ACTIVITIES OBJECTIVES GOALS Missions (Magangement by Objective MBO) The model is that labor, materials, information, capital goes into the "system" and products, profits, waste, come out the other end. If the "market" takes the goods the message is positive = make more - if the market or competition or other factors rejects the goods the feedback is negative "make less" or make better or make different. Waste taxes (pollution fees) provide feedback - make less waste! Experiment with the mix of inputs, more of this and less of that and process (new equipment) can change the ratio between inputs and outputs = productivity. Now if the "model" is goal seeking it gets information on its relative market share and moves in a strategic as well as tactical manner. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? It lacks intelligence, passions, perceptions. It is at best a robot mouse or insect. It is materialist, amoral, and has no sense of value (price of everything and the value of nothing). It lacks quality. The critical environmental information is only based on the success or lack of success of its current activities. What if (in the 1920's) the railroads had thought about other forms of transport - trucks and airplanes rather than running the railroad and selling stock? The single purpose, single mission model will not catch the major technological shifts. It lacks VISION. PATHOS LOGOS ETHOS Z-LEVEL----------------|------------------|---------------- adult SPIRIT | MEANING | SOUL Essence | | | | Y-LEVEL----------------|------------------|---------------- youth EMPATHY | SELF (EGO) | MORALS Language | | | | X-LEVEL----------------|------------------|---------------- Child PASSION | NEEDS | ME-VALUES Material | | FEELINGS THOUGHTS VALUES BEAUTIFUL TRUE GOOD HEART MIND SOUL Economic theory is Level 1, only concerned about NEEDS and ME-Values, maybe self-development and public appearance. (personality). It's a child or teenager. Traditional economic models need to "Grow up!" The question is how do we build into our models moral purpose, understanding of costumers needs now and in the future, the feeling of clients, the motivations of employees, the concerns of suppliers, regulators, communities, and the responsibility for the stewardship of planet earth. The first step is go beyond input-outputs = productivity models. Demning (Out of the Crisis) suggest a statistical model of process variables. In 1950 W. Edwards Deming, an industrial engineer, introduced to Japan a method of statistical quality control. Over the last several decades Deming's approach has become well-known as quality control circles. An analysis of Deming shows there is a basic misunderstanding of evaluation in manufacturing. INPUTS ---- PROCESS------OUTPUTS Quality of Inputs Quality of outputs System Variables Process (individual) Variables Quality is measured by direct contact of producers and consumers (internal and external). Each unit seeks to preform within its own understanding of mission and role. What are we doing? If it is providing a part for another process how is that part used and are the people who use it satisfied. Maybe there is a better way. Motorola put it this way in a want ad for production workers: "Workers need to be able to measure the parameters of the manufacturing process and report significant variance in quantity and quality . They should be able to design and conduct experiments to test the effects of changes in process, inputs or organizational methods to see if they improve quality. They should understand the companies international competitive position." So how do you do benefit/cost analysis? We need to get into the process and ask the participants how they are doing. We need to include values of a more progressive and long term range. Can quality be defined, or is it more accurate to view quality as a recognizable characteristic? Quality isn't something you lay on top of subjects and objects like tinsel on a Christmas tree. Real Quality must be the source of the subjects and objects, the cone from which the tree must start. To arrive at this Quality requires a somewhat different procedure from . . . . "Step 1, Step 2, Step 3" instructions . . . (Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycles maintenance 1974, p. 262). "Quality can be defined only in terms of the agent. Who is the judge of quality?" (Deming, 1986, p. 168). Deming sees determination of quality as involving three agents, including workers and managers as well as customers. Van Gigch, John P. TITLE: Applied general systems theory EDITION: 2d ed. PUBLISHED: New York : Harper & Row, 1978. foreword by C. West Churchman. Edition:2d ed. Riggs, James L. Introduction to operations research and management science : a general systems approach / James L. Riggs, Michael S. Inoue. : McGraw-Hill, <1975> McGraw-Hill series in industrial engineering and management science Weinberg, Gerald M. An introduction to general systems thinking / Gerald M.Weinberg. New York : Wiley, <1975> Wiley series on systems engineering and analysisNotes:"A Wiley-Interscience publication."Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Sutherland, John W general systems philosophy for the social and behavioral scences John W. Sutherland., Braziller <1973>The International library of systems theory and philosophy Includes bibliographical references. Baker, Frank, Organizational systems; general systems approaches to complex organizations Homewod, Ill., R. D. Irwin,1973 Series note: Irwin series in management and the behavioral sciences Kuenne, Robert E. The Polris missile strike; a general economic systems analysis, Ohio State University Press <1966> McDaiel, Herman, Applications of decision tables; a reader. Princeton, Brandon/Systems Press <1970> D. T. Schmidt and T. F.Kavanagh. --Manufacturing applications of decision tables, by D.T. Schmidt and T. F. Kavanagh.--Engineering data processing using decision tables, by B. Grad.--The value ofdecision tables in manufacturing, by T. F. Kavanagh and M.Allen.--Decision tables in the 1964 Census of Agriculture; views seminar, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Sept. 30, 1964.--Decision tables at the Bureau of the Census, by R. A.Hornseth.--Planning networks and resource allocation, by H.S. Woodgate.--Decision tables for regulations, from U.S. AirForce Pamphlet 5-1-1, Sept. 1965.--Simulation with decision The M/I ratio and the growth or decline of social systems: M= systems Maintenance I= Investment in systems quality Testable Hypotheses: When the M/I ration is over 1 the system is stable but not improving the "quality of life". When the ratio is over 2 the system is in decline, when over 3 the systems is in crisis. The history of US in the last 30 years is a rapid decline from 1 or 1.5 to 2 or 3, a vast increase in overhead that reduces systems productivity below the survival level. Null Hypotheses: The companies (in the same business) and countries that keep their eye on the ball will do a lot better than those that promote process over product, become entangled in their own bureaucracy, and forget investment and the long term needs of the system. Example: When the maintenance cost of an older car are greater than the cost of replacement (I= total costs of an investment in a newer car) you have a car in decline. When it is twice as high you need to trash it, when it is three times the cost of a new car, you must be crazy to drive the old clunker. If you invest in good engine oil and a proper maintenance program it most like will pay off but a new transmission in a 1985 Dodge Dart, or ?. Morals = the operational definition of morality and virtue is those habits and actions (customs and systems) that promote behaviors which increase productive Investment(human and capital) and decrease Maintenance costs. These habits and customs are the universal beliefs in loyalty to family and firm, god and country, hard work, trust, savings, domestic tranquility, and respect. People of virtue are non-violent and prudent people don't require and lot of help and make productive workers. Good behavior lowers the chances of excessive fat, cancer, accidents, crime and punishment, (police, courts, jails), social services (welfare), and bad debts. Bad behavior creates an unpleasant corporation, community and lower quality life style. The law of M/I is a version of the "natural law" theory but in measurable terms. Immoral actions (sin) is not cost effective. The issue of effective but immoral (Fascist make the trains run on time) is not often true in a modern economy. In most cases, there is no way of being effective and immoral. (In the long run, but in the long run we are all dead..) Certain cruel and unusual actions maybe "tough love" necessary for survival or maybe just mean, greedy, selfish and short sighted. The perception of the motivation is very important. The "higher reason" must be clear for painful, even unfair choices. To run up the national debt to buy votes or give benefits to the rich, is immoral. To support "bad habits" of the poor maybe also immoral; both require "tough love" and wise judgment. (joke: The Christmas play is cancelled in (DC).. because they couldn't find three wise men and a virgin) In any society (organization, family, business, school, farm, forest, or any ecological living system) when the cost of repairs, system maintenance, simple law and order, legal fees, health, routine decision making, routine staffing functions such as purchasing, accounting, personal, routine supervision, non- variable (not used in production) cost and non-capital costs are greater than the productive variable cost (cost involved in doing what the system does) the system is in trouble and may need replacement. In public education more that 50% of the money never gets to any activity which could be considered educational, surprise ? As a society we were less than 1 (M/I, more investment than maintenance) until the 1960's. Our saving and investment ratio's were higher and capital and infrastructure expenditures were much higher than deprecation. Now as a society our deprecation costs are greater than our investment - a net disinvestment. The M has overwhelmed us - this is the root cause of the Republican rebellion and the cause of "restructuring" and down sizing in many organizations. In a 6,000 billion economy: 600-800 billion for non-productive health care - used in the last month of life, on chronic ailments and mostly on the effects of bad habits ( smoking, drinking and drugs, bad diet, stress, crime ) 300 - 500 billion for prisons, cops, lawyers, courts, insurance against crime, security systems, walled communities, private "rent a cop", et al. Surely a growth business that does little to improve our competitive position in a world economy. A lot of this is spent in a vain glorious "war on drugs". 200 -350 billion for trash - useless junk that does nothing for us. ( you are free to add your own favorites or stories here ) - regulation that makes the situation worse, ( teacher certification maybe special education ) and other stupid personal policies, IRS tax law and the accounting business it generates, military equipment that is useless, troops in Germany, gadgets that don't work, most commercial television, 1000's of boards, elections, commissions, studies, on and on. It is almost impossible to be a "complete" fool, or 100% useless, but some activity is very close. We would clearly be better off without it ... the liberation case. So from a minimum of 1 trillion (1,000 billion) 17% to 2 trillion 30% of the economy is systems maintenance or waste. If 60% to 70% is in direct or indirect consumption (if you pay Social Security tax which is being spent by someone else, it's a transfer payment that ends up in consumption) there is not much room for Investment and savings. Productive investment or R&D is far less than 10% (actually public and private is only 5%) but if you count the productive part of education (less than half the cost), home improvements, quality improvements, etc you could get to 10% or even 15% but the ratio is from 2 to 3 times more M than I. Great Britain has about the same ratio, Germany is more like 1.5, Japan is still about 1 or less because of a high rate of saving, the new tigers from Asia are .3. (Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, etc.) three times more I than M.. compared to three times more M than I .. who wins and who looses. If a sports team spent 3 times as much on overhead, unnecessary coaches, front office, public relations, than on the team that scores points (the final product is entertainment not victory ) it most like will not do well vs. a team where overhead is less than 20% of costs. That much is clear.. Capitalism (American Style) and the City on the Hill Or why few were serious about Quality? The reason organized labor made much higher wages than other workers was do to constraints on the free market. From electricians who limited apprentice, and unions that got laws passed requiring Union workers and memberships inclose clubs. (In Chicago the Plasters slowed down the use of wall boards for a generation). Auto and Steel workers collaborated with the price fixing of the big corporations (U.S.Steel, General Motors, General Electric could manage prices )because high profits meant high wages. A really free market pushes prices down and causes all kinds of trouble. (Look at the Airline industry when it had real competition - free entry of new low cost Airlines - no one made any real money and wages were pushed down ). The government was used to protect these combines rather than break them up. The teachers unions reflects this negative aspect of America labor today. They are against progress and change and work with the Administration to protect the interest of workers rather then the consumer or public. In Tucker "The man and his dream" you see big business and government conspire to shut out the new innovative enterprise. There was no mention of the UAW which I am sure helped. (Owners don't have that many vote - they do have money) The Democratic party and the National Education Association (along with the AFT) are the problem not the solution. The City on the Hill speech, Ronald Reagan gave many times when he worked for GE's PR department in the early 60's. He then gave the full text for Goldwater at the 1963 convention. It was the core of his 1980 campaign. (The speech) The City on the Hill comes from Governor Bradford's history of the Mayflower Compact and the pilgrims of the Bay Colony. The history shows that "Puritan" were a better, more virtuous people. They had left the bad ways of the old world to found a society the would be pure in the new world. The colony would be as a "City on the Hill" an example to mankind of right living. The "City of God" of St. Augustine was bring Christians into the context of Greek philosophy. The good, true and beautiful was within the trinity. (gnostic) In the new world Christian belief was to bring the holy into existence, here and now, within a community of "saints". The Indians were "savages", traditional religion was ideology to false gods, and Christian pride knew no limits. The message is fundamentalist (Calvinist) Christian and capitalist in principles. Reagan also kept quoting from an false summary of Lincoln's pro business principles. His favorite was that trying to help others (the poor) just made them worse off, another that someone being rich didn't make other poorer but that individualism created wealth, Government just took it away to support bureaucrats. The speech says the country was build by these pioneers and their values. Hard work, rectitude, independence, self management, private property, private wealth et al are the real America. Now the Liberal elite (University people, media type, and rabble rousers, bureaucrats and their establishment supporters) where out to destroy our way of life by undermining the principles which made us great. They are levelers bring everyone down to a common dull level. (The central theme of the John Birch society is that groups like- The Council on Foreign Relations, the Eastern establishment are anti-American) The neo-conservative led by Irving Kristol, William Buckley, George Will and sometimes by Daniel Patrick Moynihan (a fellow traveler) showed the flaws in tradition new-deal policies. These policies often made things worse for the people they were meant to help. The highway program, public housing, welfare, are prisons for the poor and infringes on their independence. The programs only added to the power of bureaucrats and congressmen and created a lot of middle class jobs for Democrats. The "social workers" supported the Democratic machines and the one party lock on Government. The "new-deal" programs bought vote from minorities with public funds. The war on poverty was nothing more than a system of ward healing by democratic operatives in poor communities. All of this is not too far from true. William Bennett's new book "The De-Valuing America" is part political rightness but also a clear and correct statement of what is going on - In Chicago Public Schools - for example. Read the book before you pick on it. Liberals got their moral in a tangle. Democratic conventions with dozens of special interest groups (women, gays, socialist, environmentalist, etc) feed the picture of a bunch of "wild" people who were not the "silent majority" of heartland America. This is the Cultural War (a poor phase because it was used by Hitler to attach Catholics among others Kultura Krig) Are liberals amoral? Do socialist have no sense of values? Of course not. Are Republicans and the Religious Right better people? Of course not. It's politics but there is a real issue - The planet is suffering from a moral crisis. The old authority structures no longer work. (Tony Wallace - The Death and rebirth of the Seneca) There are ghost cults. There are doomsday tribes. There are false prophets. This is what happens when cultures change due to outside pressure. (Rome and today) We have a new world order - a tall order - and a lack of Vision. Sixty type radicals only help the other side. Free livers and free lovers are meat to the butcher. Christian liberals like those that have gain control of the British Labor party need to have their morals clear and clean. The left has no hope unless it reassures the insecure and insincere middle that they are puritans - another tall order. Norman Thomas (do you have to ask who he was? The Socialist leader for many years - got 3 million votes in 1932), like President W. Wilson was a good moral man, I had the honor to know - James Balwin - of the American Civil Liberties Union - there is no finer American - where are they now ? They also need a program of Jewish Christian Western competitive capitalism (When I say Christian I mean liberal Christian values, WCC types) - that is more than Greed - Worker cooperation, social responsibility, global ethics, and all the rest. (Al Gore may do, or another Southern Baptist like Carter) The current word is "Sustainable"; - In general system terms biological systems tend to exponential growth only restricted by negative feedback - (Like in Central Africa). Balance is a dynamic process of each genetic organism pushing its limits and being pushed back by environmental factors and competition. Human evolution through social technology has temporarily pushed the limits on a planetary scale. The Club of Rome report in the 1960's may not be wrong only a little off in timing. (Limits to Growth = sudden collapse of whole systems ) There are no moral problems, or political problems, or economic problems, scientific or technical problems but real problems - which come with all these considerations. For academic and technical reasons, we have divided reality up into departments. (one problem is that the liberal arts have been pushed out by specialist) The blind are feeling the elephant - with CAT scanners, satellites, remote probes, macro and micro models - but they do not understand the nature of elephants? Edward O. Wilson - Socio-biology argues that there are genetic programmed groves - like language. One major grove in the troop or clan or human group. The natural size of this group us under 80 members. Groups over a certain size become impersonal. The solution to almost everything is decentralization. A Global economy and ecology but people making decision in small groups, in neighborhoods, in regional organizations, as small as possible. This was called community action and self help projects. Special Issue: EXTENDING THE FRONTIERS OF ORGANIZATIONAL ECOLOGY (5k) SPECIAL RESEARCH FORUM CALL FOR PAPERS: EXTENDING THE FRONTIERS OF ORGANIZATIONAL ECOLOGY The Academy of Management Journal is pleased to announce a call for papers for a Special research Forum on Extending the Frontiers of Organizational Ecology. Guest co-editors for the forum will be Terry Amburgey and Hayagreeva Rao. Since Hannan and Freeman asked "Why are there so many kinds of organizations" in their 1977 paper on "The Population Ecology of Organizations", a substantial body of research has accumulated on the sources of organizational diversity in populations of business and non-business organizations. Ecological researchers have shed light on the effects of age and size on the transformation and failure of existing organizations and have shown that legitimation and competition shape the foundings, transformations, and dissolutions of organizations. In turn, these findings have opened up several areas for further research. The purpose of this special research forum is to encourage researchers to extend the frontiers of ecological research by examining areas of overlap between ecological theories and other substantive areas or by developing innovative approaches to ecological processes. Suitable papers can widen the scope of organizational ecology and build bridges between the ecological perspective and other perspectives on organizations and organizing. A number of scholars have noted commonalities between organizational ecology and other areas such as neo-institutional theory, strategic management, organizational economics, agency theory, and entrepreneurship. These areas, among others, provide substantial opportunities for cross fertilization. For example, submissions can stimulate the existing dialogue between ecological researchers and neo-institutional theorists by developing direct measures of legitimacy and studying its effects on foundings and failures. Research that strengthens the growing interchange between ecologists and strategy researchers by mapping the effects of strategic groups, multi-point competition, and size localized competition on the propensity of firms to enter markets, exit from them, and construct alliances would also be appropriate. An examination of the transactional efficiency of different organizational forms within a population or how population composition affects the location of efficient boundaries could mutually enrich ecology and organizational economics. Submissions can expand the links with entrepreneurial research by examining the factors that induce potential founders to create new organizations, or assessing the preconditions for the success of organizing attempts. Alternatively, prospective contributors can extend the frontiers of organizational ecology with novel approaches to intra-organizational, population, or community processes. Submissions can focus on the variation/selection/retention of organizational structures, routines, or programs. Papers can develop fine grained specifications of organizations and their niches to study intra or inter-population dynamics. Researchers can distinguish proto-organizations (emerging organizations) from operational organizations (producers of goods and services) and examine their interdependencies. Additionally, research could exploit the distinction between the fundamental niche and the realized niche and add to our knowledge of niche width and competitive dynamics. Research that examines the effects of technological cycles and technological standards on the vital rates of organizations would add to the confluence of research on ecological communities and technological change. An examination of coevolution among multiple populations would extend our knowledge of the growth, decline, and change in composition that results from community level processes rather than population level processes. Since the opportunities to extend the frontiers of ecological research are manifold, submissions may also rely on diverse research methods and models. Most of the ecological research to date has used event histories constructed from archival data to study state transitions or event recurrences. Although event history analysis can be utilized, other methods would also be appropriate. Papers can use simulations to study the dynamics of a process. Longitudinal analyses of network structure or changes in network structure can be utilized. Longitudinal analyses of continuous variables are also appropriate. Submissions need not rely upon quantitative techniques; papers can use detailed qualitative case histories, ethnography, or interpretive approaches to ecological phenomena. In preparing manuscripts, authors should follow standard requirements specified in AMJ's "Style Guide for Authors." Cover letters should request that papers be considered for this Special Research Forum. Five copies should be sent to Professor Angelo DeNisi, Academy of Management Journal, Institute for Management and Industrial Relations, Rockafeller Road - Kilmer Campus, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903-5062. Papers must be received no later than November 1, 1994. All submissions will be blind reviewed in accord with AMJ's normal review process and criteria. Prospective contributors wishing further information may contact Terry Amburgey at (606)257-7726, xanth@ukcc.uky.edu; or Hayagreeva Rao at (404)727-2753, hrao@emubus.bus.emory.edu. Shadow Prices, shadow values: Economics is the study of human activity. Historically the first question was about wealth. (The Wealth of Nations). Spain had great "riches" from the Andes. "Riches" were not wealth. The importation of gold created a confusion between wealth and money. (and inflation) Wealth is productive capacity. Production creates riches, but productive capacity produces wealth. P and PC P = the golden egg (riches) PC = a magic goose = productive capacity. (Covey, Seven Habits of Effective People) Now if you look long term - very long term the productive capacity means taking care of your goose. If you kill the goose, for short term profits you loose both riches and wealth. The second economic question had to do with distribution (Das Capital) - Production requires cooperation - long term systems - like the Keiretsu (formerly the Zaibatsu ) (MITSU, 23 members, Mitsubishi. 28 members - Sumitomo - 21 members, Fuji - 29 members, Sanwa Group, 39 members, Dai_icki, 45 members, Deutsche Bank-Daimler-Benz, and Hatachi has 688 members in the family, Toyota 175 and 4.000 associates. With in self-owning industrial groups, distribution questions can be settled in a tribal way with cooperative between workers and owners. There were called cartels. The problem with American Capitalism was instability due to over production. Too many firms making to much. Rationalization by people such as Morgan and John D. allowed market stability, long term planning, and vast capital growth. But public policy didn't like the "robber barons" and they did not fit classical economic theory. Keysian demand stabilization was a response to the great depression. The war did us no end of good. The activities of Japanese groups is stability, long term growth, cooperation, good relationships, rather than profits - as a bottom line. Their values are different therefore they act different. American firms in the need to produce those golden eggs (quarterly profits) had produced a sick goose. A new economics? (It's not easy so - so we come at it by successive approximations) People have a large stake in their knowledge - this inventory often prevents new ideas from getting enough shelf space. From the List (sorry I didn't get the name of the Author) I have been trying to do so building on general systems theory, in particular Bailey's _Social Entropy Theory_and James G. Miller's _Living Systems_; however, I think it would be silly to jump up and down and try to critique other fresh approaches before they have had a chance to demonstrate what they can do. Should I have stuck to neoclassical economics because it is the "only game in town"? Perhaps I should have, but the critiques of neo-classical economics by the American institutionalist and others have persuaded me that it is not the way to go. So what else to do? (I am not sure who the I is here) Comments: General Systems (Peter) In general system there is a tendency toward balance as in an ecological systems. It is not a machine or electrical engineering problem but more like a medical or biological and environmental framework. Health is defined as balance. Evolution has a mission - in very general terms, and the species have niches and roles. Edward O. Wilson in Sociobiology discusses these as groves or patterns that create tendencies. Demning discusses it in terms of general systems (overall functions) and specific systems - individual roles. In education it is the difference between assessment and testing. Assessment looks a systems characteristics while testing checks the individuals. This is the difference between the forest and the trees. This is the difference between command and control and leadership. A relationship with the organic function of a general system is necessary to really understand and fix the problem. This is the central problem of teaching systems. People want to engineer a solution before they grasp the structural and functional and ideological relationships in open and dynamic systems. Therefore the use of Zen to introduce the idea of Quality, and other attention getting devices to raise the conscious of the totality of interactions. Everything relates to everything else. The whole is more than its parts. From the Bio-ethics papers: [From _Essentials of Conservation Biology_, Richard B. Primack, 1993, Sinauer Associates Inc., Sunderland, Massachusetts, pp. 19-20. ]Statement of Ethical Principles Conservation biology It has even been speculated that humans may have a genetic predisposition to like biological diversity, called biophilia [Orians 1980; Wilson 1984]. At the earliest stages of human society, increased biological diversity would have been advantageous for the hunting-and-gathering lifestyle that humans had for hundreds of thousands of years before the invention of agriculture. Greater biological diversity would have provided a greater variety of foods and other resources, and also buffeted humans against environmental catastrophes and starvation. 2. The untimely extinction of populations and species is bad. The extinction of species and populations as a result of natural processes is a neutral event. Through the millennia of geological time, the natural extinction of certain species has tended to be balanced by the evolution of new species. The local loss of a population of a species likewise is usually offset by the establishment of a new population through dispersal. However, as a result of human activity the rate of extinction has increased a thousand fold. Virtually all of the hundreds of extinctions of vertebrate species, and the presumed extinctions of thousands of invertebrate species, in the last century have been caused by humans. 3. Ecological complexity is good. Many of the most interesting properties of biological diversity are only expressed in natural environments. For example, complex co-evolutionary and ecological relationships exist among tropical flowers, humming- birds that visit the flowers to drink nectar, and the mites that live in the flowers and use the hummingbirds' beaks as a "bus" to go from flower to flower [Colwell 1973, 1986]. These relationships would never be suspected if the animals and plants were housed separately and in isolation at zoos and botanical gardens. While the biological diversity of species may be pre- served in zoos and gardens, the ecological complexity that exists in natural communities will be largely lost. 4. Evolution is good. Evolutionary adaptation is the process that eventually leads to new species and increased biological diversilty. Therefore, allowing populations to continue to evolve in nature is good. Human processes that limit or even destroy the ability of populations to evolve, such as severe reductions in population size, are bad. Preserving species in captivity when they are no longer able to survive in the wild is important, but the species is then cut off from the natural evolutionary pro- cess. In such cases the species may no longer be able to survive in the wild if it is released. RE: Shadow Prices, shadow values: (Peter) Economics is the study of human activity. Historically the first question was about wealth. (The Wealth of Nations). Spain had great "riches" from the Andes. "Riches" were not wealth. The importation of gold created a confusion between wealth and money. (and inflation) Wealth is productive capacity. Production creates riches, but productive capacity produces wealth. P and PC P = the golden egg (riches) PC = a magic goose = productive capacity. (Covey, Seven Habits of Effective People) Now if you look long term - very long term the productive capacity means taking care of your goose. If you kill the goose, for short term profits you loose both riches and wealth. The second economic question had to do with distribution (Das Capital) - Production requires cooperation - long term systems - like the Keiretsu (formerly the Zaibatsu ) (MITSU, 23 members, Mitsubishi. 28 members - Sumitomo - 21 members, Fuji - 29 members, Sanwa Group, 39 members, Dai_icki, 45 members, Deutsche Bank-Daimler-Benz, and Hatachi has 688 members in the family, Toyota 175 and 4.000 associates. With in self-owning industrial groups, distribution questions can be settled in a tribal way with cooperative between workers and owners. There were called cartels. The problem with American Capitalism was instability due to over production. Too many firms making to much. Rationalization by people such as Morgan and John D. allowed market stability, long term planning, and vast capital growth. But public policy didn't like the "robber barons" and they did not fit classical economic theory. Keysian demand stabilization was a response to the great depression. The war did us no end of good. The activities of Japanese groups is stability, long term growth, cooperation, good relationships, rather than profits - as a bottom line. Their values are different therefore they act different. American firms in the need to produce those golden eggs (quarterly profits) had produced a sick goose. RE: Real World? (Peter con't) A friend in mathematics once said "The real world is only a special case and not especially interesting." Economics has created the most wonderful, beautiful, intellectual structure which is robust enough to have special applications to the real world. It is a theology not a science nor can it be. The "science" of man is something quite different. The logical structure is based on 18th century rationalism, and 19th century science and technology (production functions ) with a little 20th century social science (Institutional structure). The psychological reality of economic assumptions, has always been wrong in the real world. Even big organizations and economists themselves are not rational. They practice forms of social cults, with sub-optimal goals based on personal ambitions, greed, power plays, goal displacement, illusions, companies sell dreams and often live in their own dream-world, they are human - all too human. The shadows become real, the real is a shadow. Blue smoke and mirrors is our biggest business. The emperor has clothes but they are not the shining gold that the false tailors have promised. But then it's a living. Truth is an abstraction - we all find comfort in a shared illusion. Organization motivation, however, of the principle economic institutions can not be ignored. The motivation of the landed gentry, the desires and character of capitalist and industrialist, the values of corporations, the results of the separation of owners from managers, and new forms of economic enterprise (The Age of Unreason - Charles B. Handy is an excellent introduction) are too important to avoid. (Time frame for saving and investment, take-overs, Token vs. real economy are important issues that raise the real values and motive of real people in real time.) It is possible that neo-classical economics is renewed. The structure is not really dependent on the base assumptions. Market, monetary, fiscal, policy, investment and factor analysis do not depend on a social- psychological model. Each is a special case and there are some very useful tools of analysis. A carpenter does not have to understand physics. The paradigm shift (should be the name of a rock band) of the new world order, the Global economy, the limits of growth, the oversized, over fed, over here technology - creates new imperatives? What is the answer - I thought you never ask? A new bottom line - wealth not riches - productive long term capacity - not profits - the goose not the golden eggs. (Back to Adam Smith - who had good feel for predestined values, things over which we have no power - put things back in the limits of reality - we are not Gods we do not have unlimited choices. Back in tune or out of the room. Back in touch - ) RE: Principles (Laws) (Peter Con't) There are five powerful principles that work in Economics, Management theory, Education, Politics and all human activities. 1.) There is no free lunch (Riches vs. wealth) 2.) Entropy increases (Needs, desires, passions get the fire burning) 3.) Human activity is Goal Directed (Ecology vs. Passions) 4.) Sharing creates Synergy 5.) Human activity must conform to the laws of nature If these principles are understood, the world makes sense. From Blaine's Kindergarten report: Exhibits self control Shows self Confidence Shows independence and self-reliance Displays patience Assumes Responsibility for own actions Obeys quickly and cheerfully Follows directions Observes rules Takes care of Classroom materials Works with perseverance Works Neatly Uses time wisely and completes tasks Enjoys Kindergarten Manages clothing Respects rights of others Plays and works well with others Shares willingly and takes turns Uses good manners Exhibits appropriate behavior (Back to the main text on New Economics) I think a point that the neo-Schumepeterians make about technological change is relevant. One strand of neo-Schumpeterian theory explores information acquisition in cases where information as to what to do next is gained in the course of what you are doing now. In this case, purely rational decision making often prevents the search for better alternatives, while purely exploratory decision making often fails to take advantage of the new information which it discovers. This is co-evolutionary: the actions of rational decision makers creates a niche for exploratory decision makers, while the actions of exploratory decision makers creates a niche for rational decision makers. My intuition is that the same process operates in science, explaining why it is so common that "innovators" so often become influential in large part because of the work of their "elaborators".