I am pleased to inform that my paper presented July 2005 to the Third
Conference on Foundations of Information Science will be published in
_Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences_ under the title: "The
Paradox of Intentional Emergent Coherence: Organization and Decision in a
Complex World". It is 6000 words with five Tables and two Figures. An
Outline and Abstract follow below. Link for direct downlad (509KB):
http://www.robertcutler.org/download/pdf/ar07jwas.pdf
Outline:
1. "Complexity Science" or "the Complex Sciences"?
2. Functionalism and Organizational Development
3. Epigenesis and Organizational Autopoiesis
4. The Paradox of International Emergent Coherence
5. Conclusion
Abstract:
This article elaborates a framework for evaluating the growth and decline
of organizations and other systems, determining what leads some of them to
respond adequately to demands imposed upon them by their environment, and
others not. The framework synthesizes two apparently mutually exclusive
taxonomies. The first taxonomy concerns how organizations survive. It
emphasizes the creation of organizational structures to accomplish
functional tasks and comprises two principal categories: internal
functions and external functions. The second taxonomy adopts an
"epigenetic" approach, concentrating not on established functions
necessary for survival but rather on new behaviors that must be learned
for growth and adaptation to occur. The functional framework is
first-order cybernetic; the epigenetic, second-order cybernetic. Their
integrated synthesis, which is denoted the "paradox of intentional
emergent coherence," lays stress on autopoiesis. This synthesis draws on
wide literature in world politics and society, from state-centric
decision-making studies to empirical work on international organizations.
It generalizes the framework behind the author's published empirical work
in decision-making analysis and organizational development. So doing, it
concludes on a series of broader and more abstract-conceptual postulates
that problematize the relevant theoretical questions. These in turn imply
a coding scheme for assessing organizational development and performance
that develops more deeply the mentioned empirical work and may be applied
to any second-order cybernetic system.
----
Dr. Robert M. Cutler, Research Fellow, Inst. of European & Russian Studies
Carleton University, c/o Station 'H', Box 518, Montreal, Canada H3G 2L5
==> Inquire for different courier address <== Email: rmc@alum.mit.edu
Vox +1(484)919-5110 Fax +1(514)932-4457 URL: http://www.robertcutler.org
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Received on Wed Nov 1 16:03:55 2006
