Realising Systems Thinking: Knowledge and Action in Management Science (Contemporary Systems Thinking)

311 Pages·2006·2.56 MB·English

by  John Mingers

Real
ising Systems Thinking:
Knowledge and Action in
Management Science
Contemporary Systems Thinking
Series Editor: Robert L. Flood
Monash University
Australia
COMMUNITY OPERATIONAL RESEARCH
OR and Systems Thinking for Community Development
Gerald Midgley and Alejandro Ochoa-Arias
CRITICAL SYSTEMIC PRAXIS FOR SOIL AND
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Participatory Policy Design and Governance for a Global Age
Janet McIntyre-Mills
GUIDED EVOLUTION OF SOCIETY
A Systems View
Bela H. Banathy
METADECISIONS
Rehabilitating Epistemology
John P. van Gigch
PROCESSES AND BOUNDARIES OF THE MIND
Extending the Limit Line
Yair Neuman
REALISING SYSTEMS THINKING
Knowledge and Action in Management Science
John Mingers
SOCIOPOLITICAL ECOLOGY
Human Systems and Ecological Fields
Frederick L. Bates
SYSTEMIC INTERVENTION
Philosophy, Methodology, and Practice
Gerald Midgley
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Real
ising Systems Thinking:
Knowledge and Action in
Management Science
John Mingers
John Mingers
University of Kent
Canterbury, UK
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
ISBN-10: 0-387-28188-6 (HB) ISBN-10: 0-387-29841-X (e-book)
ISBN-13: 978-0387-28188-9 (HB)
© 2006 by Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.
All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in
part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science +
Business Media, Inc., 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except
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expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.
Printed in the United States of America. Printed on acid-free paper.
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 SPIN 11400066
springeronline.com
Dedicated to my family—Julie, Laura and Emma
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction.............................................................................................1
1.1 Introduction........................................................................................................1
1.2 Structure of the Book.........................................................................................4
Part I: Foundations.....................................................................................................9
Chapter 2: Philosophical Foundations: Critical Realism.....................................11
2.1 Introduction and Context.................................................................................11
2.2 Philosophical Problems within Management Science.....................................12
2.3 Problems in the Philosophy of Natural Science...............................................14
Empiricism........................................................................................................15
Conventionalism...............................................................................................17
The Relationship between Natural and Social Science.....................................18
2.4 An Introduction to Critical Realism.................................................................19
2.4.1 Arguments Establishing an Independent Ontological Domain................20
2.4.2 Critical Realism and Natural Science......................................................22
2.4.3 Critical Realism and Social Science........................................................24
2.5 Criticisms of Critical Realism..........................................................................26
2.6 Conclusions......................................................................................................30
Chapter 3: Living Systems: Autopoiesis.................................................................33
3.1 The Essence of Autopoiesis.............................................................................33
3.2 Formal Specification of Autopoiesis...............................................................36
3.2.1 Identifying Biological Autopoietic Systems............................................39
3.3 The Primary Concepts of Autopoiesis.............................................................41
viii Realising Systems Thinking: Knowledge and Action in Management Science
3.3.1 Structure-Determined Systems................................................................41
3.3.2 Organisational Closure.............................................................................42
3.3.3 Inputs/Outputs and Perturbations/Compensations...................................44
3.3.4 Structural Coupling..................................................................................45
3.4 Implications of Autopoiesis.............................................................................47
3.4.1 Implications for Biology..........................................................................47
3.4.2 Other Possible Autopoietic Systems........................................................49
3.4.3 Epistemological Implications...................................................................51
3.5 The Emergence of the Observer......................................................................52
3.5.1 The Nervous System and Cognition........................................................52
3.5.2 Characteristics of the Nervous System....................................................53
3.5.3 The Emergence of Observing and the Observer......................................55
3.5.4 Consequences of the Theory....................................................................57
3.6 Conclusions......................................................................................................62
Chapter 4: Observing Systems: The Question of Boundaries.............................65
4.1 Introduction......................................................................................................65
4.2 Physical Boundaries.........................................................................................67
4.2.1 Basic Forms of Boundary........................................................................67
4.2.2 Multiple Boundaries.................................................................................69
4.2.3 Natural Wholes.........................................................................................70
4.3. Mathematical Boundaries...............................................................................71
4.3.1 Mathematics of Shape..............................................................................72
4.3.2 Sets and Operations..................................................................................74
4.4 Conceptual Boundaries and Language............................................................75
Table of Contents ix
4.4.1 Spencer-Brown’s Laws of Form..............................................................76
4.4.2 Concepts as Difference and Distinction...................................................79
4.4.3 The Boundaries of Language...................................................................80
4.4.4 Concepts, Language and Boundaries.......................................................82
4.5 Social Systems Boundaries..............................................................................83
4.5.1 Social Membership...................................................................................83
4.5.2 Social Systems.........................................................................................84
4.6 The Problem of the Observer...........................................................................86
4.6.1 System Boundaries as Constructs............................................................86
4.6.2 System Boundaries as Process.................................................................89
4.6.3 Summary..................................................................................................93
4.7 Self-Bounding through Organisation Closure.................................................94
4.8 Boundary Setting.............................................................................................98
4.9 Conclusions......................................................................................................99
Part II: Knowledge.................................................................................................101
Chapter 5: Cognising Systems: Information and Meaning................................103
5.1 Introduction....................................................................................................103
5.2 Foundations for a Theory of Semantic Information......................................104
5.2.1 Stamper’s Semiotic Framework.............................................................104
5.2.2 An Evaluation of Existing Theories of Semantic Information..............106
5.3 The Nature of Information.............................................................................113
5.4 From Information to Meaning.......................................................................118
5.4.1 A Typology of Signs..............................................................................118
5.4.2 Information and Meaning.......................................................................122
x Realising Systems Thinking: Knowledge and Action in Management Science
5.4.3 Analysis of Some Examples..................................................................125
5.4.4 Meaning and Semiosis...........................................................................127
5.4.5 Summary of the Main Implications.......................................................128
5.5 Conclusions....................................................................................................130
Chapter 6: Knowledge and Truth.........................................................................133
6.1 Introduction....................................................................................................133
6.2 Forms of Knowledge......................................................................................134
6.2.1 Propositional Knowledge.......................................................................136
6.2.2 Experiential Knowledge.........................................................................136
6.2.3 Performative Knowledge.......................................................................137
6.2.4 Epistemological Knowledge..................................................................138
6.3 Truth...............................................................................................................138
6.3.1 General Theories of Truth......................................................................140
6.3.2 Critical Realism and Truth.....................................................................141
6.3.3 Habermas’s Theory of Truth..................................................................143
6.4 Knowledge and Truth....................................................................................145
6.5 Conclusions....................................................................................................148
Chapter 7: Communication and Social Interaction............................................149
7.1 Introduction....................................................................................................149
7.2 The Enactive Individual—Embodied Cognition...........................................149
7.3 The Social Individual: Action and Communication......................................157
7.3.1 Luhmann’s Autopoietic Communication...............................................158
7.4 The Process of Meaning Generation..............................................................161
7.5 Conclusions....................................................................................................164
Table of Contents xi
Chapter 8: Social Systems......................................................................................167
8.1 Introduction....................................................................................................167
8.2 Social Networks.............................................................................................167
8.3 The Attractions of Social Autopoiesis...........................................................168
8.3 The Problems of Social Autopoiesis..............................................................170
8.3.1 An “Ideal-Type”: Nomic, a Self-Producing Game................................172
8.4 Society as a System of Autopoietic Communication.....................................173
8.4.1 Society as the Production of Communication........................................174
8.4.2 Luhmann’s Autopoiesis—Evaluation....................................................176
8.5 Structuration Theory, Critical Realism and Autopoiesis...............................178
8.5.1 Giddens and Bhaskar: Similarities.........................................................181
8.5.2 Giddens and Bhaskar: Differences.........................................................183
8.5.3 Autopoiesis and Social Structure...........................................................189
8.5.4 Summary................................................................................................193
8.6 Conclusions....................................................................................................193
Part III: Action and Intervention..........................................................................195
Chapter 9: Management Science and Multimethodology...................................197
9.1 Introduction....................................................................................................197
9.2 Introduction to Multimethodology.................................................................199
9.2.1 The Multi-Dimensional World...............................................................200
9.2.2 Intervention as a Process........................................................................201
9.2.3 Triangulation of Results.........................................................................203
9.3 Barriers to Multimethodology.......................................................................203
9.3.1 Philosophical Feasibility—Paradigm Incommensurability...................204