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

DECISION- MAKING STRATEGIES 4)

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Most of decision-making strategies are more or less reductionist. As noted by T.R. BURNS and L.D. MEEKER: "This strategy eliminates problems of having to process and deal with different evaluations, at least in most phases of decision- making. Above all, it enables conflicts between different goals or evaluative standards in concrete settings to be articulated in relatable terms and resolved within an unidimensional value framework… Internal complexity of the decision-making system is reduced in order to achieve greater or easier computability and decidability, but this may be at the expense of essential representability of external complexity and effective action in a complex environment" (1976, p.112-3).

This could be good enough in simple situations.

However, situations may not be as simple as they seem… and the decision-maker may not be aware of it.

In order to allow for more secure evaluations prior to action, a systemic strategy should carefully consider the relations of the system with its metasystem (van GIGCH), in order to discover if some of these have some significant – and possibly ignored – bearings on the system's behavior.

It should also consider its internal organization, in terms of network relationships and organizational closure, since some unknown self-referrent behavioral cycle may react to some decisions by possibly uncontrollable blockages or runaway processes.

Still another, and quite subtle problem is the possible incompatibility between multiple objectives, which could be partial or total, or a result of an erroneous understanding of the relations between different time scales.

This should be adressed by a better systemic understanding of the potential availability of resources, the need for regulations and the possible differential cyclical behavior of some variables.

In very complex systems, decision-making should ideally be a final result of wide participation of all the stakeholders.

→ Design (Co-participative); Design (Generic)

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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