Organizational Genetics

by Anthony Fedanzo, Ph.D.

Overview

The great insight of biological science in the last half of the 20th century is that life is a special kind of information. It is the information contained in the genetic program of each organism. Evolution is a continual process shaping the contents of the genetic program of countless species throughout the history of life on this planet. That process itself is now known to be essentially one of information processing. Viewing evolution as a kind of information processing opens the possibility that the laws of evolution operate to shape other kinds of information processing in systems other than those of organisms and their genetic programs.

Business and industry as well as public agencies are the largest users of information processing technologies. If evolutionary processes are discoverable outside of strictly biological contexts it is reasonable to suppose that they'll be found among those systems that use information processing nearly as much, if not more, than does Nature. Indeed, the thesis of this work is that natural selection does operate over organizations that use so-called ‘Fourth Generation’ computerized database technologies.

There are some basic conceptual hurdles that must be cleared before the vantage point of looking at evolutionary processes as information processes will reveal anything more than tantalizing analogies. The first hurdle is that compartmentalized thinking, putting the things of this world into pigeonholes, must be set aside in favor of a systems approach.

By 'systems approach' nothing more complex is meant than being self-conscious about when and why it is sometimes convenient to compartmentalize thoughts, things and perceptions. It also means looking first at systems, at the organized complexity that constitutes not only life, but virtually all of humankind’s activity and physical reality. Using a systems approach, both organisms and organizations can be discussed from a common ground. The justification for adopting this outlook will appear more and more obvious as it is used to develop fruitful insights.

A second conceptual hurdle that needs to be cleared is the frequent habit of thinking about information as some kind of passive "stuff" that gets manipulated, massaged, stored, and retrieved by computers. In the world of computer technology and business the phrase "data processing" is the traditional reference for all forms of information processing and technology. Note that at any given time other phrases such as “MIS” (management information systems) or “IT” (information technology) are more or less synonymous with “data processing.” For our purposes the latter phrase suffices. Unfortunately this phrase tends to solidify the mental habit of regarding information as a passive substance that people and machines manipulate as they see fit (or are directed).

In reality, information has both a passive and an active role in systems. It is passive when we speak of communicating some particular item to another system, be it a person, machine or organization. Information is active when it takes the form of a program, plan, or goal. This includes all the important meanings of what "information" means as well. Thus, the second habit of thought to be put aside here is the belief that information is only acted upon. In fact, information in the human mind and in organizations is usually present just for the active role of shaping and directing their behavior.

A third conceptual hurdle is the assumption that any attempt to generalize a law of biology is simply "transplanting" biology outside its proper domain and therefore is predestined to failure. In this work, biological laws, especially those of evolution, will be sought in the context of human organizations. However, they will not be transplanted there any more than a physical law of force, mass, and acceleration is "transplanted" to outer space when we discover that it describes the behavior of planets as well as billiard balls. The methodology of this essay will be to show that the simplest explanation for what is observed in the behavior of certain organizations is that they are following the law of natural selection for reasons that should appear obvious once revealed.

The skeptic, and I am one also, is motivated to clear these hurdles only so long as the prize at the end is worth the effort. The prize at stake is an entirely new understanding of the relationship of Man and Nature. Stated another way, a growing worldwide ecological awareness has firmly demonstrated that human activity feeds back upon the complex systems that support our clean air, water and food supplies. In addition, genetic engineering shows that humanity can deliberately alter the very stuff of inheritance, producing an entirely new species.

What this essay shows is how a technological achievement in an area most often thought of as the antithesis of life and its processes, allows Nature (with or without the capital "N") to begin to take a further hand in our lives, but at a supra biological level. The same point can also be stated as once organizational information processing reaches a threshold level where the nature and shape of the process itself becomes part of the information content (as is the case in genetic information), the same natural laws that characterize such phenomena in biological systems apply to organizations.

Information processing becoming so complex that the way it is done actually becomes part of the informational contents occurs in only one other arena; human thought. We know that the genetic program, the "message" contained in DNA, (deoxyribonucleic acid) exhibits this level of complexity because it is what controls organismic development. Here we attempt to establish that certain organizational computer technologies likewise exhibit the same properties as do genetic programs.

It is worth conjecturing how much insight into our own minds' workings this knowledge of a more generalized evolutionary process might provide. Of course, the conjectures will themselves be dependent upon successfully generalizing some aspects of evolution to some aspects of some organizations. Only after this is accomplished can further inquiries be posed with any hope of their shedding light upon the nature of thought generally and the creation of so-called "artificial intelligence" as a case in point.

When we speak of reformulating or reconstructing the basic understanding of how Man and Nature are related, the door to philosophy is thrown open. Whether it is religious, political or moral philosophy or a combination of these, restructuring how we see ourselves will have serious implications for our beliefs and behaviors. Since this is not meant to be a work in philosophy, many of the fascinating issues it raises unfortunately must go unanswered. As far as possible, though, obvious philosophical issues will at least be noted, if not resolved.

By considering whether and how evolution might be making an inroad into human affairs via our modern computer technology perennial questions about the nature of our own minds and of our behavior are reviewed with new insight. To anticipate the results of discussion a little, one of the major illuminations of this study is to point up just how inescapable are the consequences of our collective actions even when from the viewpoint of common sense the actions in question are as exotic and remote from nature as are computers.

In the same vein, the results of this essay show that the long-standing worldview of "Man above, Nature below" is entirely false; nature is sometimes clearly "above" by virtue of our collective activities. Ecology teaches this lesson as well, but often leaves the impression that it is always Man who acts and Nature that reacts. The reverse is true in the case of organizations falling under evolution. Nature is acting and it is Man who must now dis

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469121048
Publisher:	Xlibris Corporation
Publication date:	03/30/2001
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	169 KB