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A Systems Model of Human Organisation (Part 2)

This post is part two of the article begun last week. Due to its length, I have split the article down into three posts, but if you would like to read it in one sitting a copy can be downloaded here https://rational-understanding.com/my-books#systems-model.

Internal Feedback

Adapting internal processes involves an internal feedback loop in which the command component’s role is to:

gather information from subordinate components. This information is subject to darkness and miscommunication. Darkness implies that the full picture can never be known. Miscommunication may involve subordinate components providing misinformation or failing to supply relevant facts. Thus, the role of the command component is also to ensure that the supply of information is relevant and policed.
issue instructions, laws, rules, regulations, norms, etc. to subordinate components and to police them. As will be explained later, ideally, this should also include rules to prevent negative competition. There can be difficulties when a command component polices itself, and thus, in a democracy for example, law-making and enforcement are separated.

External Feedback

Influencing the organisation’s external environment also involves a feedback loop. Outputs from the organisation act as inputs to other organisations in the environment. These may then be processed to yield the original organisation’s desired inputs. At its simplest level, an individual may pay for, or in some other way trade for food. At a higher level, a business may lobby government for reduced taxation or regulation. These external feedback loops are what bond levels in the organizational hierarchy together into society.

Each component organisation’s demand for inputs is a motivator. If, at the level in which external feedback occurs, other component organisations share the same motivator, they can act in one of three ways:

Negative Unilateralism. The organisation acts unilaterally and in negative competition with others. The terms unilateral and multilateral are normally associated with international affairs, but here they are used more generically. Negative competition involves preventing competitors from achieving their goals. It includes but is not limited to the provision of misinformation about either organisation’s motivation, abilities and intentions. In this scenario, each organisation strives for its inputs from what may be a limited resource, and no functioning parent organisation emerges. Because negative competition leads to inefficiencies, the full potential benefits are unlikely to be achieved. Finally, open conflict can arise. It is notable that this largely reflects the state of global organisation today.
Positive Unilateralism. The organisation acts unilaterally and in positive competition with others. Positive competition occurs when competitors each strive to be the best, as in the case of a running race. It leads to a recognition of which component is best suited to what function. This, in turn, leads to co-operation. Each component finds the niche to which it is best suited and/or in which it is the most efficient. Thus, a functioning parent organisation with a command component ultimately evolves. On average, each component organisation will gain greater benefits than the previous option. However, sub-optimisation applies, and the benefits may not be as great as for those who are overwhelmingly successful in negative competition.
Multilateralism. The organisation acts in co-operation with others. In this case a parent organisation with a command component is designed. The European Union is an example. However, because each component organisation strives for efficiency, there is a risk that they will exploit others, rather than contribute to the common effort. This would reduce the benefits for all.

In practice, the above options exist as points on a scale. There are numerous intermediate points between options a and b, and between options b and c, which depend on the attitudes and decisions of the component organisations.

Because we are a eusocial species, we must balance individual or unilateral action in our short-term interest with communal or multilateral action yielding longer-term benefits. For every organisation, there is an optimum efficiency which can be achieved by using positive unilateralism or multilateralism where appropriate. Nations with conflict between the political left, who favour collectivism, and the right, who favour individualism, should take note.

Optimisation applies to an organisation that acts unilaterally. If an organisation acts multilaterally, then we must rise up through the hierarchy until we reach either the global system or a parent or grandparent acting unilaterally. The requirement for optimization then cascades down through component and sub-component organisations, which may then need to operate sub-optimally.

When influencing its external environment, the role of the command component of an organisation is to:

gather information from the external environment. In the systems model, this information is an input, which itself must be sought by influencing the external environment.
make decisions in the interest of the relevant organisation as a whole. The relevant organisation may be the one commanded, its parent, or its grandparent, whichever operates unilaterally.
manage the balance between unilateral and multilateral action to optimise the efficiency of the relevant organisation.
issue commands to sub-ordinate components for the necessary outputs.

This article will conclude with part 3 next week.

Further Principles of General Systems Theory

I will describe General Systems Theory in more detail in the next few articles, and then provide a systems based model which can be used to understand human society, how it works, and why it sometimes fails. This model uses the principles described below.

Near Decomposability. Many natural and artificial systems are structured hierarchically, and their components can be seen as occupying levels. At the highest level is the system in its entirety. Its components occupy lower levels. As we move down through the levels we encounter ever more, smaller, and less complex components. The rates of interaction between components at one level tend to be quicker than those at the level above. The most obvious example of this is the speed with which people make decisions. An individual can make decisions relatively quickly, but the rate steadily slows as we move up the hierarchy through small groups, organisations, and nations, to global society.

Sub-optimisation. This principle recognises that a focus on optimising the performance of one component of a system can lead to greater inefficiency in the system as a whole. Rather the whole system must be optimised if it is to perform at maximum efficiency. Its components must sometimes operate sub-optimally.

Darkness. This principle states that no system can be known completely. The best representation of a complex system is the system itself. Any other representation will contain errors. Thus, the components of a system only react to the inputs they receive, and cannot “know” the behaviour of the system as a whole. For the latter to be possible then the complexity of the whole system would need to be present in the component. The expression “black box” is used to describe a system or component whose internal processes are unknown, and “white box” to describe one whose internal processes are known. Most systems are, of course, “grey boxes”.

An interesting question arises from the principles of near composability and darkness. As explained in previous articles, human beings are motivated by needs and contra-needs. The question is, of course, whether groups of individuals, species, and ecosystems also have needs and contra-needs which differ from their individual members. Are reduced birth rates, for example, a natural species response to population pressures? If so, then near decomposability implies that, because groups, species, and ecosystems are more complex systems than single individuals, the processes which satisfy those needs will proceed more slowly. Darkness implies that as individuals we would be unable to “know” the processes involved, although as a society we might.

Equifinality. The processes in a system can, but do not necessarily, have an equilibrium point, i.e., a point at which the system normally operates. If, for any reason, the processes are displaced from it, then they will subsequently alter to approach that point once more. This characteristic is known as homeostasis. Thus, a given end state can be reached from many initial states, a feature known as equifinality. For example, if a child’s swing is displaced from the vertical and released, then, after swinging to and fro for a while, it will eventually return to the vertical.

Multifinality. It is possible for the processes in a system to have more than one stable point. If a process is displaced a little from one of them, it may ultimately return. However, if it is displaced too far, then it may subsequently approach another equilibrium point. This is a feature of natural ecosystems. If they are damaged in some way, they will ultimately return to a stable state. However, this state will often differ from the earlier, damaged, original.

Dynamic Equilibrium. This principle is like that of equifinality but applies to rates of change in systems. Some systems are dynamic and have a stable rate of change. If displaced from that rate of change for any reason, they will ultimately return to it. This is known as homeorhesis, a term derived from the Greek for “similar flow”. Again, a dynamic system may have several stable rates of change.

Relaxation Time. Relaxation means the return of a disturbed system to equilibrium. The time it takes to do so is known as the relaxation time.

Circular Causality or Feedback. Feedback occurs when the outputs of a system are routed back as inputs, either directly or via other systems. Thus, a chain of cause and effect is created in the form of a circuit or loop. The American psychologist Karl Weick explained the operation of systems in terms of positive and negative feedback loops. Systems can change autonomously between stable and unstable states depending on the dominant form of feedback. Feedback is, therefore, the basis of self-maintaining systems which will be discussed in the next article.