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

MANAGEMENT and SYSTEMS MORALITY 1)4)

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J.van GIGCH tackled this subject in his book on "Applied General Systems Theory"(1978, p. 145-170). His views have been much influenced by C.W. CHURCHMAN's ones.

van Gigch writes: "In the past, science and design could remain value free… the optimum dictated solely by the "technological imperative" by which efficiency meant to find the solution with the lowest technical costs"(p.145)

However now "technological efficiency becomes subordinated to social efficiency". This implies that "to determinate the morality of a system's design is to evaluate the effects of the planner's intervention on those for whom the plan is intended. It involves a consideration of:

1- value measures-costs and utility

2- a science of values

3- the ethics of spillover effects

4- the ethics of causing changes

5- the ethics of goals

6- the manager's ethics

7 – social responsability

8- the conservation ethics

9- consumerism and consumer protection

10- safety and product liability "

These points are extensively developed by van Gigch in his book. It is generally very important to understand that many of the terms used as for example: costs, utility, values, goals- have very variable psychological overtones (or "undertones"?) according to the different people who use them: managers, shareholders, stakeholders, outside observers.

The very signification of the concepts of morality and value needs to be deeply scrutinized.

→ Clanthink; Decision making; Ethics and morality; Rights and responsabilities; Trade off decision

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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