Title: Modelling pathologies in social collectives

Authors: Maurice Yolles

Addresses: School of Business Information, Liverpool John Moores University, John Foster Building, 98 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, L3 5UZ, UK

Abstract: As social collectives operate through more complexity their coherence suffers and their pathologies become more apparent. Generic modelling of pathologies will be explored in terms of the knowledge cybernetics schema. Two models will develop, one which is transitive in nature and the other lateral. The transitive model distinguishes between different realities in autonomous collectives, and an example is the distinction between thinking and doing. The lateral model distinguishes between different states of being within the same reality. Examples of a lateral schema are the distinction between two competing corporate agents in a given frame of reference seeking the same observable good (e.g., market share), and the more coded example of the interaction between the ideology and ethics of social collectives that affect both the autopathic (endogenous) and sociopathic (exogenous) nature of the pathologies of collectives.

Keywords: social collectives; complexity; coherence; pathologies; knowledge cybernetics schema; ideology; ethics; autopathology; sociopathology; modelling; autonomous collectives; international management.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2007.012919

European Journal of International Management, 2007 Vol.1 No.1/2, pp.81 - 103

Published online: 24 Mar 2007 *

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