En Memoria de Bertalanffy Gray 1972
Transcript of En Memoria de Bertalanffy Gray 1972
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IN MEMORI M
LUDWIG VON BERTALANFFY
1901..1972)
On June 12, 1972 the life of Ludwig von Bertalanffy, the father of
general systems theory, came to an end, to the great sorrow of his family,
his friends, and his worldwide iegion of coileagues and students. To them
he was the great originator and innovator of the 20th century whose works
have produced a revolution in our view of the worid, its inhabitants, and
its happenings. It is a systems view of the world that he spoke for, in which
the leading elements for the biological and behavioral sciences were pri-
mary and spontaneous activity and human concern, in contrast to the
mechanistic and more rigid concepts of eariier times.
An increasing number of areas of inteiiectuai endeavor are turning
to von Bertalanffy's ideas for what John A. Beckett refers to as an
intel-
lectually respectable underlying theory [1] . Among these are the fields
of organization and management theory, i have been asked, as one of von
Bertalanffy's dear friends and proteges, to write a short paper on what I
consider to be the leading elements for these particular fields.
On June 16th a memorial service was held for von Bertalanffy in the
small town of Wiiiiamsville, New York. It was lovely and gracious and would
have greatiy pleased him because there was good talk and the electric
excitement that characterized personal meetings with him. Fortunately, he
transmitted these qualities in his writing so that, in a sense, to read him
was to know him. An evening with Ludwig was a marvelous and wonderful
experience of suddenly seeing new worlds of knowledge open upnew and
optimistic ways of viewing this tired old worid of ours that we had somehow
missedthat inspired both the scientist and humanist residing within
each of us to move ahead in promising new directions.
In the words spoken at the service by Anatol Rapoport, his old friend
and intellectual compatriot, Ludwig von Bertalanffy supplied the new intel-
lectual capital for scientific thought that Alfred North Whitehead had years
before warned the Western worid it needed if it were to avoid sterility, and
provided the bridgework that promises to link the systems thinkinq of the
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Academy of Management Journal December
theory is to be in a precarious position, but I have decided to be guided
by my long friendship and to select as I think he might have, were he still
with us. He would, I believe, select three issues to bring to your attention.
First, he would tell you that you must develop a field of theoretical
management, much in the way that he fathered the field of theoretical
biology. He would tell you that life is more than a collection of descriptions
and taxonomies, and that if management theory Is to be a living science it
must develop its theoretical base.
I hope he would agree with my second choice, which is to consider
his beloved fliessg leichgew icht as the core concept for developing
management theory. Von Bertalanffy's beautiful notion of flowing or stream-
ing equilibrium is at the heart of his notions of open system and dynamic
interaction and deals with the fact that all living things are not rigidly
structured, but are formed by their patterns of flow. In the analogy of the
candle flame or the Heraclitean river, it is always changing and yet the same.
A true theory of management science must be composed of streams of
ideas, concepts, and observations that maintain their form only as long as
the streaming flow continues. They must not degenerate into permanently
fixed structures, for then they would only be a house without inhabitants.
The third point of concern that von Bertalanffy would urge on you is
to consider always that the laws of organization are not limited to those
observable in the lower strata of hierarchical structures. The search for
such higher level organizational laws is the great new frontier of our times.
A new world is aborning, known as The World System, and should be
the subject of central concern to management and organizational theorists.
It is clearly described by Laszio in his recent book.
The Systems View of
the World
[3 ]. Another source book for the ideas of von Bertalanffy and
their worldwide impact will soon be available. It is
Unity Th rough Diversity
to be published this
fall,
of which I and my colleague, Nicholas D. Rizzo,
have the honor to be editors [2]
WILLIAM GRAY, M.D.
R F R N S
1 . John A. Beckett , Personal Communication (1972).
2.
W il l iam Gray and N icholas D. Rizzo, eds., Unity Through Diversity (New Yo rk: Gordon
and Breach, in press).
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