Evolution of ideas on management processes in the society: From cybernetics to evergetics

Abstract

R. L. Ackoff initiated a discussion about the possibility of such a “way of organizing a society, which would stimulate more social and individual development than socialism and capitalism do it”, and he called it a developing society. In continuation of the started discussion, the article that is proposed to the reader, traces evolution of ideas on the management processes organization in the society and substantiates necessity to create the science on the management in a developing society. In his monograph “Cybernetics and Society”, N. Wiener set forth his expectations of results of social life cybernation, which he associated with the use of new emerging opportunities “for the benefit of man, rather than merely for profits”. However, the success of society cybernation was largely due not to the fact that “the world has become kinder”, but to the “instrumental performance”: the widespread use of Informatics and Computer science, often becoming an end in itself, came to the foreground. The man with his vital needs and spiritual requirements dropped out of sight of the cybernetic systems creators. In order to remedy this situation, this article presents a postnonclassical approach to create the science of management processes organization in a developing society, the focus of which is “the man of culture”, i.e. the man, not just adhering to cultural norms, but also creating new concepts and products of culture. This science is proposed to be called Evergetics (Greek’s evergétis-benefactor) and determined as the science of management processes organization in a developing society, each member of which is interested in augmenting his cultural heritage he is producing, which entails a raise of cultural potential of the society as a whole and, as a consequence, an increase in the proportion of moral and ethical managerial decisions and corresponding to them benevolent actions in public life.