Richard F. Ericson

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Richard Ferdinand Ericson (1919 - 1993) was an American organizational theorist, and Professor Emeritus of Management and Director, Interdisciplinary Systems and Cybernetics Project, Program of Policy Studies in Science and Technology at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C..

Contents 1 Biography 2 Work 2.1 The cybernetic organization 2.2 Interdisciplinary synthesis 2.3 Society for General Systems Research 3 Publications 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Biography

Richard F. Ericson received his PhD. and started working at the Iowa State College in the 1940s. In 1954 was appointed associate professor of management in hospital administration at the State University of Iowa. In 1961 he had been named professor of Business Administration at George Washington University, and here in 1969 he became Professor of Management.

Ericson has been organizationally active. He was Chairman of the Comparative Administration Task Force, The Academy of Management from 1966 to 1968, and President and Managing Director of the Society for General Systems Research in 1968 for a year. In 1969 he became Director, Interdisciplinary Systems and Cybernetics Project, Program of Policy Studies in Science and Technology at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C..^[1]

Dr. Ericson was member of Phi Beta Kappa, Beta Gamma Sigma, American Economic Association, American Management Association, Society for General Systems Research, American Cybernetics Association, The Academy of Management, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the World Future Society.^[1]

[edit] Work

Ericson reasearch interests were in the fields of General Systems and Cybernetics Approaches to Management Theory and Practice, Value Issues in Contemporary Management, GEMSOC.^[2]

[edit] The cybernetic organization

In "Visions of Cybernetic Organizations" in 1972 Ericson declared the essence of cybernetic organizations in their self-controlling, self-maintaining, self-realizing. Cybernetics itselve can be characterized as the "science of effective organization", which conjures computerized information networks, closed loop systems, and robotized man-surrogates, such as "artorgas" and "cyborgs". This is not the world that Norbert Wiener envisaged. The trend in the 1970s was that cybernetic applications of computer technology had already progressed to a point at which an autonomous "Turing Machine" or "Uttley Machine" culture is clearly foreshadowed."^[3]

[edit] Interdisciplinary synthesis

One of the most significant features of scientific advance in the 1970s has been the gradual concrescence of previously distinct theories, methods, disciplines and cognitive modes. Proponents of the conception that the policy sciences should comprise a rationally structured supradiscipline rightly emphasize the desirability of accelerating this slow process of intellectual unification. However, this enterprise continues to be obstructed by failure to realize that interdisciplinary principles sufficient to generate a legitimate unification of scientific and humane concerns of the policy sciences can issue only from philosophical reconstruction. A normative (value-sensitive) mode of general systems analysis adequate to the demands of adaptive social-institutional systems must constitute an epochal modification of the conventional perspective of scientific inquiry.^[4]

Under the assumption that the magnitude of the task will not dissuade us from the aim of establishing interdisciplinary principles, attention is concentrated here on a factorization of the specific metatheoretic projects that are thought to be entailed:

1. selection of primitive concepts and commitments of a system-theoretic mode of rational inquiry, and
2. institution of an attending set of rational canons for normative systems analysis.

This article is based on material to be published in a forthcoming volume, Toward Revitalization of the Contemporary University: Essays Utilizing General Systems and Cybernetic Concepts to Reorient Universities for Greater Social and Human Relevance in the Modern World, edited by Ericson.^[4]

[edit] Society for General Systems Research

In his Presidential Address at the Annual Meeting in Houston in 1979, Richard Ericson called for an “action research agenda” for the Society for General Systems Research. Action research is "that which results from application of transforming concepts and techniques in an ongoing real world organizational context.” In his Conference Chairman’s Preface to the Silver Anniversary Meeting he reiterates this call and states that: "I deeply believe that this society has now thrust upon it a kind of moral imperative to focus efforts on the utilization of general systems concepts and conceptualizations by policy-forming"^[5]

[edit] Publications

Ericson has written and edited several books and articles. A selection:

• 1969. Organizational cybernetics and human values. Program of Policy Studies in Science and Technology. Monograph. George Washington University.
• 1969. Toward increasing the social relevance of the contemporary university. Program of Policy Studies in Science and Technology, George Washington University.
• 1968. The impact of cybernetic information technology on management value systems. Program of Policy Studies in Science and Technology, George Washington University.
• 1971. The policy analysis role of the contemporary university. Program of Policy Studies in Science and Technology. Reprint.P rogram of Policy Studies in Science and Technology, George Washington University.
• 1978. Avoiding social catastrophes and maximizing social opportunities : the general systems challenge : proceedings of the 22nd annual North American meeting, Washington, D.C., February 13-15, 1978. Richard F. Ericson, proceedings coordinator. Washington : Society for General Systems Research.
• 1979. Improving the Human Condition; quality and stability in social systems. Edited. Washington, Society for General Systems Research.

Articles, a selection

• 1958. "Should Management be Idealistic?" Harvard Business Review, September/October 1958.
• 1963. "Toward a Universally Viable Philosophy of Management". In: Management Technology, Vol. 3, No. 1 (May, 1963), pp. 33-55
• 1966. "Research Scholar's View of Administrative Theory," Proceedings of The Academy of Management, March 1966;
• 1969. Toward Increasing the Social Relevance of the Contemporary University, Program of Policy Studies, August 1969;
• 1969. "The Impact of Cybernetic Information Technology on Management Value Systems," Management Science, October, 1969
• 1972. "Visions of Cybernetic Organizations". In: The Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 15, No. 4, General Systems Theory (Dec., 1972), pp. 427-443.
• 1970. "The policy analysis role of the contemporary university". In: Journal Policy Sciences. Issue Volume 1, Number 1 / March, 1970. Pages 429-442.
• 1985. "Thinking and Management Values in the Microchip Era: An Action Agenda for Institutional Transformation". In: Systems Research 2 (vol. 1), 1985, pp. 29-32.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Professors Emeritus George Washington University.