THE PROVIDE-PICKUP PARADIGM: CORNERSTONE IN A GENERAL SYSTEMS FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING AND SUPPORTING AGENCY AND GOVERNANCE IN SOCIAL SYSTEMS

In spite of significant advances in technology in today’s world, our large social systems are marked by increasing social decline. A human systems paradigm can inform and be informed by analysis and clarification of the hard facts of our soft social systems. The aim of this paper is to uncover, understand, unify and clarify the laws of social systems just as we have done with the laws of material and mechanical systems. This paper proceeds to identify flaws in practice and theory underlying our current social systems, and then correct them using a wider knowledge base gathered from general systems theory and relevant disciplines. The updated theory presented here holds that agency of organization behaviour is not in the leader, nor the worker, but in both. Each system member learns and performs according to his/her own willingness and ability, resulting in almost infinite variability. Thus, a new provide-pickup paradigm is proposed. The leader’s role is to provide input, resources and tasks; the learner/worker role is pickup of input, each at his/her own rate. In large social systems, important input is beyond the pickup range of individuals. User-designed ideal-based automated social control systems are proposed to allow organizations and system members to flourish.