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

OPTIMIZATION (Sub) 2)4)

← Back

"The attainment of some kind of optimum in part of the system (which) precludes the attainment of an optimum for the whole" (K. BOULDING, 1972, p.84).

K. BOULDING states that this problem "which emerges out of economics… has a highly general significance" (Ibid).

It arises, in human organizations, out of the inadequate – and in some cases downright non-sensical – use of technical tools applied to inadequate ends.

From another angle, K. BOULDING adds: "Many of the failures of organizations, for instance, are a result of suboptimization, which could be defined as the best way of doing something which should not be done at all, or more generally, finding the best way of doing something in particular without taking account of the costs which this solution imposes on other segments of the system" (Ibid).

Suboptimization is a very general and dangerous result of hyperspecialization, as most specialists merely see as their duty managing and resolving as best as possible their own small segment of a global situation they consider to be outside their commitment… if even they are conscious of its existence.

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]

We thank the following partners for making the open access of this volume possible:

© 2020 BCSSS Contact/Imprint