The Law of Unintended Consequenses

[David Kerridge <dfkerridge@mac.com>]

Help required with a projected study.


I have often read, both in popular articles and serious papers,
of the "Law of Unintended Consequenses".

Action on a large system may produce effects that are quite
unexpected, and may be the exact opposite of what was
intended. Government actions are particularly prone to do
this, perhaps because the systems are so large, but other
systems are also liable to go wrong. In particular the long
term effects may be in the opposite direction to the immediate
effects.

I remember an attempt to reduce time wasted in meetings in
Aberdeen University leading to nearly twice as many meetings,
lasting longer than before.

And then an attempt to be more "democratic" by increasing
the number of people eligible to attend meetings led to fewer
people actually attending.

Clearly an aim of the Deming Management Philosophy is to
make changes that only have good consequenses, whether
intended or otherwise.

My question is: does anyone know who first used the term
"The Law of Unintended Consequenses"? A quick search
of the WWW has found a range of papers quoting it, but
no pointer to the original source.
-- 
Best wishes

David

dfkerridge@mac.com