Arnold Kransdorff writes, in part, about:
>companies who have actively encouraged the flexible labour market for
>good reasons (an easy way to implement change/slash costs quickly when
>they get into trouble)
It is a sad irony of the system dynamics movement that one of their
favorite examples of a stock-and-flow diagram includes feedback loops
having to do with firing and hiring people -- as if to legitimize
management thinking that people are "expendable" or to encourage the
"adjustable workforce" as an endorsed way of dealing with issues.
I do not see this ["people are expendable"] as an underlying value of
system dynamics nor other kinds of systems thinking -- quite the opposite
in Senge's work, for example -- but I don't like the unintended message
being sent by the use of such example models. I would be very happy if I
never again saw a system dynamics model that included firing/hiring loops
(especially when naively and exclusively connected with short-term
economic outcomes.)
John W. Gunkler
jgunkler@sprintmail.com
--"John Gunkler" <jgunkler@sprintmail.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>