Stafford Beer, the great thinker of cybernetics, developed the simple idea of POSIWID (“the purpose of a system is what it does”) during his study of organizations. An organization may have a stated purpose but that is not always what it does or what it is successful at.
The Congress may have the official duty of representing district and pass laws for the good of the country. The POSIWID of Congress is to maintain power for those elected. The official purpose or goal of the Fed is to maintain stable prices and full employment, yet its POSIWID is support Wall Street and maintain the jobs of the economists running the Fed. A university is supposed to educate, yet it may engage in activities to perpetuate its status.
Yes, this sounds and is cynical. It is supposed to be. It is not always easy to get an organization to do what it is supposed to do, the real reason for its existence.
hat tip to doomberg.com for mentioning Stafford Beer.
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