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

GUIDANCE (SELF-) 4)

← Back

T. GOGUEN FRANTZ proposes what she calls "evolutionary guidance systems (EGS's) ", which can help persons "to design the organization they ideally would like to become at some time in the future… " on the base of "an image, clear enough, attractive enough… " and eventually "consensually agreed upon" (1991, p.79).

FRANTZ adds (describing the graph shown in her paper): "EGS's must keep the image vivid for everyone and must keep it updated. For that reason iterative cycles of information are shown flowing from a past or present institutional state to the EGS and from it to a future state of the institution. Multiple states are shown for the EGS, because it co-evolves with the system it serves" (Ibid).

This is an interesting idea, which may be very helpful to psychically movilize people. However, somecaveats seem to be necessary. No EGS could suddenly appear out of the blue: it is unavoidedly base on values and norms (how things should be), which are not neutral, being in the best case, culture-borne.

An EGS could however also be shaped by some ideologues (individuals or closed knitted groups), whose well known insulation from anything that may contradict their beliefs makes them good candidates for inquisition, intolerance and autocracy, at times even cloaked in a pretense of open mindness.

Systemic guidance should imply a maximum possible genuine openess, which is the only way to insure that the quota of invisibility is as low as possible.

True guidance should be based on mental devices for taking a clear conscience of one own's basic values and norms, and for their evaluation. This implies taking distance from onself, one of the most difficult psychological exercise, for sure.

At least, some systemic concepts may help as for example semantic critique (KORZYBSKI) or the notion of mindscapes (MARUYAMA).

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