Linkage Propositions between Fifty Principal Systems Concepts

Abstract

Ackoff states that “the concepts and terms commonly used to talk about systems have not themselves been organized into a system [1].” Margaret Mead can be heard meeting after meeting criticizing the field she helped popularize for not applying the “systems approach” to itself. The comparatively slow development of a paradigm in general systems theory [compare with fields described in (2) and especially (3)] is characterized by endless redefining of the same few terms followed by the rediscovery, and often rewording of the most common of these terms in each new discipline as it “popularizes” the systems level for itself. The result has been confusion in terminology, a highly fractured and “fuzzy” paradigm, and a set of introductory texts [4, 5, 6, 7] none of which can be expected to cover more than a part of the whole set of concepts available. The fragmentation of concepts between disciplines and approaches has stifled the widespread awareness of the consistent set of linkages that potentially exist among the concepts.