Ends and Means LO8097

Dr Ilfryn Price (101701.3454@compuserve.com)
Tue, 25 Jun 1996 09:46:45 -0400

Replying to LO8060 --

Regarding John's conversation with Robert Lucas

=======start==========
To which I comment: The self-destruct behaviors you mention do not
change the point I was making, they just describe the nature of that
self-organizing, which is a function of the larger system in which it is
taking place. There must be a payoff to the participants to behave in
such ways in that system. Or participants don't take the goal or
project they're working on seriously. In other words, I think we need
to look at such behaviors as symptoms of how the system they are part of
operates. It is likely that the system that the parts of the system
itself are filled with hidden agendas, inefficient (though staunchly
defended) processes, and so on. In other words, people will
self-organize to the best of their ability, given their experience,
information, resources, awareness, and the environment in which they are
operating. Recognizing this, we should work at dealing with
organizational symptoms that would foment such dysfunctional behaviors
on the part of team members.
==========end==========

Absolutely John, except working at the symptoms may not be enough. The
dysfunctional self-organisation you describe is probably perfectly
functional from the point of view of a set of meaning systems [perhaps
views on competition, or money, or power, or functional specialism or ...]
that are preserved in it and by it. That is the 'means' or 'meaning
spaces' that enable the system have their own ends which may even enable
[or may once have enabled] this dysfunctional team to succeed in a certain
economic game.

To change more than the symptoms we have to work on the replicators that
produce them or on the environment that enables them to flourish.

If Price
The Harrow Partnership
Pewley Fort Guildford UK
101701.3454@compuserve.com

-- 

Dr Ilfryn Price <101701.3454@compuserve.com>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>