bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Applied organizational genetics
Authors: Fedanzo A. J. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractThe theory of organizational genetics underwrites the application of biological models into some organizational contexts. Three such models are presented and discussed: (i) the evolutionary basis for optimal data redundancy; (ii) safety factors for support structures and systems; and (iii) allocation of resources for defense against herbivory. These models are translated into their corresponding organizational settings following a brief review of their meaning in biology. All three are quantitative models, allowing predictions to be made in an organizational context as well. Application of any of the models presupposes a prior analysis of the organization's data model and determination that organizational genetics accurately describes the organization.
Expert‐support systems: The new technology and the old knowledge
Authors: Ivanov Kristo 
Published: February 2011

AbstractOne suggestion that is advanced in this paper is that if the new wave of expert‐support systems (ESS) is not anchored in historical and philosophical (and therefore scientific) considerations the computer ages of rationalism (management information systems) and empiricism (data bases) may be followed by a wave of phenomenology, simple radical empiricism or simple pragmatism (‘practical doing’) represented by ESS, expert systems and support tools. This suggestion will be outlined by presenting the kind of questions that should be answered in order to make sure that real progress is made in the design and use of so‐called knowledge‐based ESS. Such an inventory of questions will be followed by a list of problematic concepts that should be better understood in future research.
A systemic approach to occupational stress
Authors: Armstrong Anona F. , Dudgeon Paul 
Published: February 2011

AbstractA theoretical model of occupational stress built upon the concepts of systems theory is presented. Systems theory is concerned with the problems of relationships, structure and interdependence among the components of the system. Occupational stress is conceptualised within a systems framework in terms of person‐environment fit and incorporating occupational stress into the broader social issues of quality of life and quality of working life. The advantages of using a systemic approach to conceptualise and investigate occupational stress are demonstrated in a study of 38 respondents. Results strongly support hypothesised relationships between stress, strain and personality factors. The hypothesised relationships between strain, adaptive responses and quality of life and quality of working life receive qualified support.
Toward a general theory of social system development: A management/marketing perspective
Authors: Joseph Sirgy M. , Mangleburg Tamara F. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractThis article reports a developmental theory of social systems using concepts from developmental psychology, management, and marketing. More‐developed social systems are argued to be mostly preoccupied in satisfying higher‐order needs (e.g. social, esteem, and self‐actualization needs), whereas less‐developed social systems are mostly preoccupied in satisfying lower‐order needs (e.g. biological and safety‐related needs). Development is defined in terms of need satisfaction hierarchy of a given social system. The higher the need satisfaction of a social system the greater the development of that system. Social systems engage in a set of activities to satisfy their needs. Successful activities, therefore, serve to enhance the development of social systems. The activities that serve the needs of social systems are classified as technical, supportive, maintenance, managerial, and adaptive. Each of these types of activities involves a developmental dimension. It is argued that progressive satisfaction in social system development is a direct function of developmental changes in technical, supportive, maintenance, managerial, and adaptive activities.
Correspondence: Information entropy as a basis for media access allocation
Authors: Wood Fred B. , Wood Fred B. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractA key tenet of information theory, Shannon's mathematical equation for the information entropy of a discrete communication channel, is applied by analogy to illustrate how access to political communication channels such as cable television could be allocated. Application of this equation provides a basis for maximizing the information entropy of political communication. However, such applications must overcome a number of theoretical and practical limitations to be politically viable.
Systems methods for organizational analysis and design
Authors: Jackson M. C. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractThis paper seeks to set out what competence in systems methodology is required for the proper study and management of organizations. There are three parts to the paper. In the first section some general remarks are made about the nature of organizations as systems. The outcome is a statement about the meta‐characteristics of the systems methods that need to be employed in organizational analysis. In the next section this result is used to classify existing systems methods aimed at exploring and gaining knowledge about organizations. It also helps to identify weaknesses in systems inquiring competence in this area. In a final section, a range of systems methods capable of managing and designing organizations is presented and the relationship between these methods and the earlier analysis is demonstrated. Again, the aim is to systematize existing systems inquiring competence in this field and to reveal gaps in that competence.
The need for systems research on global climate change
Authors: Wood Fred B. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractRecent research has documented the immense complexity of global climate change. The climate system (1) is characterized by multiple inputs and feedback relationships involving many components of the earth system that (2) operate on variable time and geographic scales and (3) can exhibit nonlinear and counterintuitive behavior leading to (4) possibly abrupt changes in equilibrium conditions. Unprecedented rates of increase in atmospheric trace gases and deforestation justify intensive systems research to help verify current and projected global warming trends. This systems review identified numerous uncertainties that warrant attention.
Correspondence: Excess entropy (ee) and excess entropy production (eep) in aging, evolving systems
Authors: Hershey Daniel , Lee William E. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractFrom the thermodynamics of irreversible processes, Excess Entropy and Excess Entropy Production formulas are developed for a living system. For inanimate, corporate‐style organizations, analogous Excess Entropy concepts are derived from Shannon's informational entropy equation. It is suggested that Excess Entropy and Excess Entropy Production are useful concepts in tracking aging systems.
Design of the modern inquiring system—i. r. descartes (1596–1650)
Authors: Van Gigch J. P. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractThe first installment of studies which will survey the thinking of ancient and contemporary philosophers for ideas on how to design the modern inquiring system is dedicated to René Descartes, in the year in which we are celebrating the 350th anniversary of the publication of his famous Discours de la Méthode.We begin our incursion into the design of inquiring systems by recalling that it is C. West Churchman who initiated this dialogue. We owe our inspiration to his pioneering work, The Design of Inquiring Systems [1]. In this book he sets the stage for our own study which consists of exploring the work of the great philosophers for clues on how to design the modern inquiring system. In his pioneering book, Churchman discussed the ideas of five philosophers, namely: Liebniz, Locke, Kant, Hegel and Singer. He proposed to incorporate the outstanding ideas of these thinkers in the design of modern inquiring systems. First, we will review the meaning of ‘inquiring system’ and will proceed, in future installments, to extend Churchman's work to other noteworthy philosophers and thinkers
Evolution as an entropy driven process: An economic model
Authors: Vogel Joseph H. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractEvolutionists and economists employ similar methods of optimization and resource allocation to describe and predict natural and social phenomena. In this paper, entropy production is postulated as the maximand in biological processes and analogs are derived in evolutionary theory to the Stolper—Samuelson theorem, Rybczynski theorem, and Jones Magnification Effect of economic theory. The proposed thermodynamic model of evolution explains diversity, extinction, the five agents of microevolution, Gause's Competitive Exclusionary Principle, gradualism, increasing biological complexity, the Law of Extinction, Lotka's Principle, the Minimum Dissipation Principle, neutralism, punctuated equilibrium, r‐k selection, and sex in terms of free energy allocation to increase entropy production. Preliminary hypotheses are generated and the model is compared to its alternatives. Finally, implications for exobiology and a synthetic theory of natural and social phenomena are discussed.
Japanese manufacturing techniques: Nine hidden lessons in simplicity, by Richard Schonberger, The Free Press, New York, 1982, 260 pp.
Authors: Stryker Nancy 
Published: February 2011

AbstractWorld Class Manufacturing Casebook: Implementing JIT and TQC, by Richard Schonberger, The Free Press, New York, 1987, 253 pp.The New Manufacturing Challenge: Techniques for Continuous Improvement, by Kiyoshi Suzaki, The Free Press, New York, 1987, 255 pp.
A classification scheme to guide a journal's publication strategies: Response to editorial on publication strategies written by John N. Warfield, systems research, 5(1), (1988), 3‐8
Authors: Van Gigch John P. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractThis article is written to answer an Editorial on publication strategies and to attempt to study the areas of stated interest as well as the publication mix of Systems Research for the first four volumes of its existence. It is suggested that the following designators be used to classify the articles published in Systems Research:1. First designator to indicate the article's Discipline.2. Second designator to indicate its Level of Inquiry.3. Third designator to indicate its Specific Application Area.
Toward an information‐based theory of irrational systems behavior
Authors: Rahmatian Sasan , Hiatt Charlotte 
Published: February 2011

AbstractStarting with resistance to change as a real‐world, practical ground for understanding the apparent irrationality of human behavior, this paper proceeds to sketch a theory of rationality. Rejecting the logical/linguistic framework of rationality, we adopt the pragmatic/behavioral one instead, and within that framework build a conceptual base. The outline of the theory is embodied in seven fundamental propositions. The highlight of the theory is a postulate stating that all purposeful human behavior is rational. This postulate derives from a theory in which purposeful behavior is conceptually based on three types of assumptions. It is argued that the attribution of irrationality to others is itself a form of purposeful behavior, and therefore assumption‐based. The observer's lack of information about the actor's assumptions is viewed as the underlying explanation of his attribution of irrationality to the actor's behavior.
Multi‐modal systems design: A concern for the issues that matter
Authors: De Raadt J. D. R. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractMany social systems in the past and in the present have evinced a lack of humanity. This may be attributed, at least in part, to the reductionistic ideas that have underpinned social design. These ideas have failed to see the multi‐modal character of human life, and as such, ignore the things that matter the most to mankind, such as love, faith and purpose. These operate in their own modalities and cannot be understood on the basis of economics, logic, physics or any other modal sphere.An alternative approach to social design takes advantage of the homomorphism that exists between modalities, by transducing the order of one modality into another. If applied, this approach would lead to a more humane design of social systems.
Theoretical consideration of input transduction at the cell surface based on the development of a cybernetic model
Authors: Foss R. A. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractThis search for a better understanding of transduction starts by investigating the process of input transduction at the cell surface, using the β‐adrenergic receptor‐coupled adenylate cyclase system as an example. From the findings, a cybernetic model of this important cellular transducing system is developed. The forward network shows both inhibitory and stimulatory input through specific receptors and transducers into a common amplifier. The output signal from the amplifier is then transduced by an internal transducing system into specific changes within the cell's operations. Closure is provided by two negative feedback loops which control the active receptor's output into the whole system. It is concluded that the high gain potential provided by multistage amplification enables the system to respond to weak input signals and gives it greater scope for sensory adaptation. Adaptation by feedback loops prevents receptor saturation, reduces distortion, stabilizes gain and makes the system sensitive to change, not to the level of signal. The model suggests increasing domination of the total system by the feedback network, in which case the behaviour of the cell would depend mainly on its control of perception.
Truth in the science of man
Authors: Vendryès Pierre 
Published: February 2011

AbstractWe are going to subject human beings to scientific analysis which can reach the level of genuine scientific theory. But before starting we really should turn to the question of what we mean by ‘Science’. To do this we have to plunge centuries back to unearth various theories about the characteristics of proposed sciences. Each of these theories appears to have centered on one particular domain of Nature. Each has earned a theoretical status, establishing abstract relations between objects of its domain in agreement with actual relations, deemed as truthful. For example, the periodic motion of celestial bodies led astronomers to conceive abstract relations, as a rational order in things expressed by the word ‘cosmos’. In this way each science finally made its particular domain intelligible. Thus the intellectual scope of Science is to make Nature intelligible to mankind. When we talk about ‘Nature’ we mean everything which has existed, everything which exists, and everything which will exist. There are no limits to this domain. Man, inasmuch as he is a living being can therefore become an object of scientific enquiry and therefore scientific theorizing. The object of the present paper is to ascertain the characteristics of scientific truth attached to such a theory. This analysis is particularly relevant at the present time as science appropriates an ever‐increasing share in the advance of civilization. The theory of man is a recent development. It has encountered great resistance. The fact that throughout and despite many centuries of development, Science has so far failed to make human beings intelligible to themselves should be attributed to such resistance. This suggests that probing into the scientific theory of Man might upset many established ‘truths’ current in science today. To know these ‘truths’, we must go back as far as we can in history and attempt to trace out how scientific truth has unfolded.
Emergent attractors and the law of maximum entropy production: Foundations to a theory of general evolution
Authors: Swenson Rod 
Published: February 2011

AbstractBy Boltzmann's widely accepted reduction of the second law to a stochastic collision function, transformations from an incoherent to a coherent state are ‘infinitely improbable’. Yet it is precisely the transformation of the incoherent into the coherent, the progressive emergence of new levels of macroscopic constraints, that has brought, and continues to bring, the visible universe into being. Whether in ecosystem succession, the emergence of hydrodynamic structures, morphogenesis, 4GY of bioevolution, cognitive and cultural evolution, or cosmic evolution as a whole of which all the rest are part, the observed behavior is the same: Spontaneous and successive symmetry‐breaking coupled with the progressive attraction of matter away from equilibrium to time‐independent limit sets through the selection of some highly reduced (coherent) subset of accessible microstates, Ms, from some much larger initial (incoherent) set, Mn. This immediately raises the question of where, given the known laws of physics, such progressive goal‐directed behavior can come from, viz., (i) what universality governs the instability (symmetry‐breaking) of the incoherent regime; and (ii) what extremum principle governs the selection of microstates on the attractor? It is shown that a law of maximum entropy production can be reached deductively from the second law of thermodynamics with an assumption of the ontological irreducibility of nonlinear behavior, and inductively from the study of simple physical systems where the usual explanatory mechanisms, e.g., genes, brains or other ‘maker’, are clearly absent and therefore cannot be invoked. This law is seen as the cornerstone to a theory of general evolution within which biological and cultural evolution are special cases. As a result, a great proportion of the behavior generally believed to be generic to either biological or cultural systems is shown instead to be generic to the physics of the expanding universe.
A phenomenology of evolving networks
Authors: Ulanowicz Robert E. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractA significant characteristic of post‐Newtonian science is its exclusion of all but material and mechanical causalities. There is reason to question whether such minimalism is sufficient to describe living processes. Paradoxically, a strict material/mechanical stance may engender unnecessary anthropomorphism. By admitting autopoiesis as an example of formal cause at work in living system, a more sufficient and natural description of biological phenomena results. Furthermore, recent advances in the analysis of networks provide a quantitative framework for identifying the effects of formal causes at the system level.
A model of the reproduction of state‐sponsored ethnic violence
Authors: Adams Richard N. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractA self‐organizing trigger‐flow model is proposed to analyse the reproduction of slaughters and massacres by the state of Guatemala representing a ‘ladino’ (non‐indigene), against the Mayan indigenes population that comprises about 50% of the total. The process has evolved through many centuries and is based on a combination of mutual fear between the two ethnicities, but is triggered by the actions at the state level that bring reactions by the indigenes against the local ladino population which, in turn transmits its fear through the state leaders who again resort to slaughter.
Structural evolution in urban systems
Authors: White Roger W. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractStandard dynamical models of self‐organizing urban systems give good representations of the process by which spatial order appears, but do not address the question of the evolution of the functional structure. Simulation experiments with hierarchical systems show that system dynamics at one level may affect system structure at another, and that dynamic instability leads to a concentration of activity in a large central business district, which in turn creates a structural instability that is rectified by the appearance of a new functional entity at a new hierarchical level—the planned centre. However, dynamic system models have inherent limitations when used to address the question of structural evolution. Neural network models are thus introduced as an explicit representation of a process by which structure appears and evolves in response to functional requirements. From this point of view, the city is seen as creating and modifying its own functional organization in order to deal with the stream of events that constitutes urban life. For this approach to be fully satisfactory, the emergent structure must embody a representation of itself and its environment.
Design of the modern inquiring system
Authors: Van Gigch John P. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractThis is a further installment of a series of articles which attempts to trace the development of the modern inquiring system. It follows an idea of C. West Churchman [2], and is a sequel to several previous installments of this series [11,12, 14].In this case, the survey refers neither to an ancient nor to a contemporary philosopher, but to a poet and novelist, who started to write at the turn of the century.The concept of ‘modern inquiring system’, defined by van Gigch in [14] as ‘a system dedicated to the acquisition and production of knowledge and to the solution of contemporary systems problems’ will have to be expanded in the present instance to apply not only to ‘knowledge’, but rather to ‘wisdom’, to ‘consciousness’, to ‘spiritual force’, to systemic ‘feeling’ in addition to ‘thinking’. See also [13].
The design of evolutionary guidance systems
Authors: Banathy Bela H. 
Published: February 2011

AbstractToday we are standing at a critical juncture of societal evolution at which unprecedented human fulfillment as well as the annihilation of the human race are equally possible. However, we are not at the mercy of evolutionary forces but have the potential and the opportunity to give direction to societal evolution by design, provided we create a vision for the future of humankind and develop the will and the competence to realize that vision in all of our human systems, from the family on to the global system of humanity.First I present a brief overview of societal evolution and point out evolutionary gaps that are potential sources of our destruction. I will then suggest we have the power within us to steer societal evolution toward a hoped‐for future, provided we: (1) develop evolutionary consciousness, (2) create an evolutionary vision for societal development, (3) acquire evolutionary competence, and (4) apply our competence in guiding the evolution and development of our sociocultural and socio‐technical systems.In the third part, I elaborate on item (4) above and discuss: (a) a general model for evolutionary guidance, (b) the role of design in societal evolution, and (c) the process by which Evolutionary Guidance Systems can be created and used in societal development.
Living systems theory: A solution to the problem of closure in information systems
Authors: Banathy Bela Antal 
Published: February 2011

AbstractChurchman reminds us that information systems tend to be constrained by ‘the inability of the system and its users to have proper sensing devices with respect to the outside world’. The solution to this problem of ‘closure’ is of concern in the design of information systems. This paper explores the use of Living Systems Theory as a conceptual framework for information systems design.A formal characterization of the information processing subsystems of Living Systems Theory is presented. Miller's taxonomy of information coding mechanisms is extended to account for temporal, self‐referential, and environmental information. The extended formulation of Miller's theory is proposed as a theoretical framework for information systems design.