Matjaz Mulej

How to restore Bertalanffian systems thinking

Ludwig von Bertalanffy created general systems theory in an effort to counter the oversight and endangerment of humankind by disciplinary specialization. Bertalanffy desired for a holistic worldview and openness to replace overspecialization. Although widely cited and regarded, his concept prevailed only at a fictitious level, mostly as a tool inside specialization, which many scholars are neither able to overcome nor complement with interdisciplinary, creative co‐operation. Similarities (isomorphisms) are not enough. Here, a system of seven groups of systems thinking principles, which serve as a framework for restoring Bertalanffian systems thinking without his exaggerations is presented.

Corporate social responsibility from the viewpoint of systems thinking

Purpose – The corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an essential topic of both life and sociocybernetics. It requires businesspersons and other decision makers to be broad and hence to apply inter‐disciplinarity incorporating many, mutually partly different and therefore interdependent, viewpoints for requisite holism. To do so, they should use systems thinking. But the modern diversity of systems theories, including cybernetics, opens the issue: which systems theory and/or cybernetic should one use? Aims to discuss the dialectical systems theory (DST), its definition of holism and its definition of the seven principal groups of notions making systems thinking possible, when applied in a synergy. This may lead to a requisite holism, and hence to efficiency and effectiveness of the work on and of the CSR; it has often been done so in the 30 years of DST.Design/methodology/approach – Desk research and indirect field research were used. The concept of CSR is a rather soft topic. It demands a holistic trea...

INFORMAL SYSTEMS THINKING OR SYSTEMS THEORY

Systems thinking is the practice of holistic thinking, which can be informal or based on systems theory. Success has always depended on holistic rather than one-sided thinking. Empirical findings about the innovative society can exemplify this statement, though there seems to be no universal agreement as to what the basic attributes of systems thinking are, and we offer a summary of them. To test them, we investigated an industrial latecomer country and found that the understanding of both the innovative society and the systemic thinking are rare: one-sidedness prevails. What do we do to come closer to holistic thinking? Neither the General Systems Theory nor most other systems theories (except the Dialectical Systems Theory) provide a methodology supportive of holism; however, the case of the visionary companies proves that informal systems thinking can be very powerful. Hence, systems theories should work more on informal systems thinking.

Diffusion of innovative behaviour with social responsibility

Purpose – Development or existence of human society depends on innovations and the end of one‐sidedness of behavior. The complexity of innovative processes has been widely studied, yet the success rate is still low. The purpose of this paper is to identify by the dialectical systems approach how some concepts, important for development of inventions into innovations can better support requisitely holistic innovative behavior.Design/methodology/approach – System theory, theory of innovations and social responsibility are used to understand diffusion of innovations as part of the innovative processes.Findings – Many established theories, methods, procedures and standards support innovation management, but its economic success remains poor. Invention‐innovation‐diffusion processes (IIDP) remain poorly managed, especially the non‐technological. The usual approach is too one‐sided. Invention and innovation phases received more attention than the requisitely holistic consideration of the diffusion phase. Social...

Requisite holism, isolating mechanisms and entrepreneurship

Holism is a familiar concept, but it lacks a coherent definition in either theory or practice. This impedes common understanding and realistic observation and action. At the heart of the problem is the inevitability of human specialisation, which tends to be accompanied by a lack of cooperation, especially of an interdisciplinary nature. False holism may result in unpleasant surprises due to oversights. People who are able to avoid them tend to employ, even though tacitly, the law of requisite holism. This article seeks to explain this phenomenon by associating it with the practice of entrepreneurial management.

Business cybernetics: a provocative suggestion

Purpose – There is a field needing both cybernetics and systems theory: business as one way to viability – “business cybernetics” might have to emerge. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.Design/methodology/approach – A first draft of business cybernetics (BC) notion is presented. Discusses the definition of business systems (BSs) and their need for requisite holism, our understanding of cybernetics, our understanding of the (general) systems theory and systems thinking, differences between some versions of systems theories and cybernetics, and add our draft cybernetics of BSs, finishing with BC as a case of interdependence between business practice, systems theories and cybernetics and resulting conclusions.Findings – It was not found, although quite some literature was studied and quite some practical experience in business, both as employees and as consulting instructors was collected. It is clear that cybernetics and (general) systems theory were created at about the same time by two di...

On Requisitely Holistic Understanding of Sustainable Development from Business Viewpoints

In the new millennium, and in its global economy, everybody will have to be very competitive and hence innovative. For this reason most humans, economies, and businesses must innovate our understanding of economics in all areas and levels of human activity. The new challenges require a thorough innovation of work, including a requisitely3 holistic consideration of sustainable development (SD). In our contribution we would like to shift attention from a principle-based moralizing about relations between the sustainable development and enterprises to a very practical issue: how to support a more requisitely holistic understanding of SD from business viewpoints. The most important or most frequent issues of a new understanding and implementation of SD include the following: SD requires holism, hence professional and political aspects in synergy, hence systems thinking; SD requires linking of different approaches to problem solving; businesses should no longer forget about SD; ISO, etc., standards are not holistic enough concepts to solve all SD problems; A more requisitely holistic methodology is needed for implementation of SD in business. We offer some new suggestions.

Toward a holistical perception of the content of business ethics

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer a new requisitely holistic definition of business ethics (BE) as a crucial component of business cybernetics and practice. The present contribution considers a basic problem: how humans use BE to influence their business processes. Therefore, business is/should be investigated from the viewpoint of ethics. Requisite holism of understanding and consideration of BE in business reality is unavoidable; it can (and must) result from findings and considerations of the interdependence between business practice, ethics, and BE.Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, qualitative analysis is applied on the basis of the cybernetics (e.g. especially business cybernetics), dialectical systems theory, and ethics theory.Findings – Ethics is a crucial emotional part of human attributes. They can be viewed as the subjective part of the starting points of any human acting/behavior process, including business. Thus, ethics (may) have/has a crucial role in business cyberne...

Requisite holism – precondition of reliable business information

Purpose – This paper aims to suggest a new way toward reliability of contents of business information, on which quality of business critically depends. Contribution considers two problems: how to innovate information support for business with non‐technological innovations? And how can enterprises improve reliability of information for their work?Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, qualitative analysis on the basis of the dialectical systems theory and business cybernetics is applied.Findings – Modern markets require innovated business concepts. They include creation and implementation of requisitely holistic information support. Hence, enterprises need information management innovation. The use of requisite holism (as non‐technical innovation) to increase content‐reliability of business information is discussed. Matching information requirements by business cybernetics based on dialectical systems thinking can diminish errors by providing requisite holism.Research limitations/implications – Resea...

Democracy without empowerment: the grand vision and demise of Yugoslav self‐management

Under Josip Tito’s leadership, Yugoslavia broke away from Stalinistic central planning in 1948 and developed an economy‐wide system of worker self‐management. Its ideological focus was on leadership development and continuous learning among all employees, replacing owners and state bureaucracy with empowered workers at the helm of Yugoslav firms. Over time, the world’s largest experiment in empowerment went awry, however. A state‐supported neo‐Taylorism with a “thinking tank” and a separate “working tank,” evolved which represented little real empowerment. By the 1980s, self‐management had become an impotent bureaucratic formality behind a democratic facade. The dynamics within the rise and fall of Yugoslav self‐management provide lessons for understanding and managing empowerment efforts today.