SYSTEM DESIGN MODELING

AND
METAMODELING

SYSTEM DESIGN MODELING

AND
METAMODELING
John P. van Gigch
California State University
Sacramento, California

Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

L i b r a r y o f Congress C a t a l o g i n g - i n - P u b l i c a t i o n

Data

Van G1gch. John P.

System design modeling and m e t a m o d e l i n g / John P. van G i g c h .
p.
cm.
I n c l u d e s b i b l i o g r a p h i c a l r e f e r e n c e s and i n d e x .
ISBN 978-1-4899-0678-6
1 . S o c i a l s c i e n c e s - - M a t h e m a t i c a l models.
2 . System a n a l y s i s .
3. Decision-making.
I. Title.
H 6 1 . 2 5 . V 3 6 1991
003--dc20
91-16229
CIP

ISBN 9 7 8 - 1 - 4 8 9 9 - 0 6 7 8 - 6
DOI 1 0 . 1 0 0 7 / 9 7 8 - 1 - 4 8 9 9 - 0 6 7 6 - 2

ISBN 9 7 8 - 1 - 4 8 9 9 - 0 6 7 6 - 2 (eBook)

1 9 9 1 Springer Science+Business Media New York

Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1991
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1991

All rights reserved

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To create an artifact,
the designer needs to be
a scientist to model reality,
an epistemologist to metamodel the design process, and
an artist to contemplate the result.

SYSTEM DESIGN
METAMODELING

I
MODELING

REAL WORLD

SYSTEM DESIGN

Preface

This book is a venture in the worlds of modeling and of metamodeling.

At this point, I will not reveal to readers what constitutes metamodeling. Suffice it to say that the pitfalls and shortcomings of modeling can be cured only if we
resort to a higher level of inquiry called metainquiry and metadesign. We reach this
level by the process of abstraction.
The book contains five chapters from my previous work, Applied General
Systems Theory (Harper and Row, London and New York, First Edition 1974,
Second Edition 1978). More than ten years after its publication, this material still
appears relevant to the main thrust of system design.
This book is dedicated to all those who are involved in changing the world for
the better. In a way we all are involved in system design: from the city manager
who struggles with the problems of mass transportation or the consolidation of a
city and its suburbs to the social worker who tries to provide benefits to the urban
poor. It includes the engineer who designs the shuttle rockets. It involves the
politician engaged in drafting a bill to recycle containers, or one to prevent
pesticide contamination of our food. The politician might even need system design
to chart his or her own re-election campaign. I believe that system design is of
relevance to the medical staff of a hospital which has been asked to cut costs, as
well to workers involved in designing protocols to fight new diseases. System design
is certainly important to those of us in education who have to master critical thinking skills and apply them to shape other minds. System design should be of
relevance to both, hard and soft system designers, where the distinction between
hard and soft refers to the differentiation between physico-mechanistic system
domains, as found mainly in the physical and natural sciences, and biologicalbehavioral domains, as usually found in the behavioral sciences, the social sciences,
management science, industrial engineering, engineering management, and the
like. System design aims to make readers aware of new approaches and new
methodologies as well as to raise awareness of the importance of metamodeling in
problem solving. Overlooking the metamodeling perspective may help explain
many of our costly mistakes in system design. As an author, I hope to spark interest
in new ideas and to keep asking questions in order to improve our solutions to the
problems that beset us on Planet Earth and beyond. As my patient readers will
soon find out, the "Earth and beyond" to which I am referring is not an empty
ix

PREFACE

metaphysical entity, but rather a metareality which exists, here and now, in the
realm of organizational decision making.
As the verse at the beginning of the book states, to create an artifact requires
the skills and knowledge of an expert who works at three levels of abstraction. The
designer must take turns to be scientist, epistemologist, and artist. The assessments
of all three are needed to ensure a design's success. As this book draws to a close,
I prefer the position of the artist, who can "apprehend"* and contemplate the work
"in its entirety,"* while awaiting the reader's verdict.
John P. van Gigch
Sacramento, CA

* Terms

borrowed from Langer. See Ref. 24 in Chapter 10.

Acknowledgment

This book is dedicated to my students, without whom I would have no audience.

In particular, I would like to thank J. Borghino, John R. Crawford, T. Delacroix,
Kim Handy, Sarah Harper, Doug Orahood, Maria Pereira, Carol Simonini, Susan
Takeda, and many others whose ideas have been included in this book. May this
acknowledgment encourage them to be inquisitive and insightful and never settle
for simple answers to complex problems.

xi

Contents

Plan of Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Part I:

The Nature of Reality

1.

The Modem View of Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.

The System Approach: Introduction and Examples . . . . . . .

29

3.

The System Approach: Applied System Theory ..........

61

Part D:

Modeling

4.

Decision Making and the System Paradigm

101

5.

Modeling. . . .. . . .. . . . .. . .. . . . .. ... . ... . . .. . .. .. . ...

119

6.

Model Types.......................................

137

7.

Complexity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

171

8.

Control and Regulation. .. . .. .. . .. . . .. . .. . . .. . . . .. . ..

189

xiii

xiv

CONTENTS

Part III:

9.

Metamodeling
The Metasystem Paradigm: Metasystem Design

225

10.

Abstraction ........................................

233

11.

Metamodeling ......................................

255

12.

Metamodeling: More Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

275

13.

Diagnosis and Metamodeling of System Failures . . . . . . . ..

297

Part IV:
14.

Metamodeling and Organizational Decision Making

The Metasystem Approach to Organizational Decision
Making............................................

315

15.

The Metasystem, Rationalities and, Information .........

333

16.

Rationalities and Metarationalities in Organizational

Decision Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

343

17.

The Metasystem Paradigm: Applications ...............

359

18.

The Morality of System Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

399

Glossary ......................................................

423

References ......................................................

429

Index ......................................................

449