SV: Why is a systems view important?

[Øgland - Petter <petter.ogland@skatteetaten.no>]

John Balor commented on the problems of the static Buddhist "General Systems
View" of the world and the dynamic of capitalist economy, and consequently
questioning the conclusion in Capra's "Hidden Connections".

What strikes me as rather interesting is that Frederick Taylor's "Scientific
Management" was applied all over the world, e.g. in France, Russia and
Japan, but Deming's philosophy has only been used in capitalist countires,
has it?  Perhaps Soviet communism would have ruled the world if they had
followed the principles of Shewhart and Deming?  Afterall, the command
economy is, to a much larger extent than the capitalist economy, based on
the metaphore of a well-oiled machine...?

On the other hand, unlike Taylor, I'm not sure Deming used the machine as a
metaphore for how the organisation was working.  Gareth Morgan suggests that
viewing the organisation as a brain is the proper metaphore for TQM, but I'm
not sure.  Did Deming say anything on this?  Did he view the world as a
garden, or a symphony, or a hydralic system or...?

Petter