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

PROBLEM (III-structured) 2)4)

← Back

A problem "which cannot be expressed in precise terms" (P. CHECKLAND, 1976, p.131).

Problems implying ecological and/or human factors are by necessity ill-structured because they can normally not be reduced to precise quantification. Or quantification would be simply an artificial way to eliminate psychological or sociological non quantificable values.

CHECKLAND, who established the concept, states: "Their crucial characteristic is taken to be that they are unstructured, and the aim has been to find a way of using systems ideas to tackle them without having first to define them sharply, without forcing them into a structured form. This is deemed necessary because if a problem is stated in a well-defined form its solution is usually implicit in the definition, and such "solutions", in real-world problems, tend to pass the problem by. In the management science area, for example, we all learn to recognize the queuing theory enthusiast who readily sees problems as queueing problems, thus enabling him comfortably to use his favorite technique" (p.132).

CHECKLAND proposes "… a more open analysis of the situation within which a problem is perceived' and, of course who perceives it".

When the situation is clearly perceived by the various actors "… debate ensues which aims to define changes which meet two criteria: are they arguably desirable?; are they, in the situation we have, feasible? If desirable and feasible changes emerge then action in the original problem situation is possible. If changes meeting those two criteria do not emerge, then we may explore more radical or more conservative viewpoints via further conceptual models – and in so doing learn. The methodology is in fact a learning system (in contrast to those methodologies for "hard" systems engineering which deal in terms of "design" and "optimization" and "implementation")" (Ibid).

In this way, CHECKLAND's methodology deals with the relative invisibility of the environmental situation of the problem, a very dangerous feature when decision-making is needed about supposed "desirable" and/or "feasible" change.

Let us note however that the concept of design has evolved notably since CHECKLAND wrote these Iines.(1976)

→ Problem (Well structured)

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