Stuart Umpleby

Stuart A. Umpleby (born 1944) is an American cybernetician and is a professor in the Department of Management and Director of the Research Program in Social and Organizational Learning in the School of Business at The George Washington University.

Biography

Stuart Anspach Umpleby was born in 1944 and started studying at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1962. He received degrees in engineering in 1967, in political science in 1967 and 1969, and in communications in 1975. While at the University of Illinois he worked in the Biological Computer Laboratory and the Computer-based Education Research Laboratory (the PLATO system).

From 1967 to 1975 he designed computer conferencing systems and other applications for time shared computers. [ [http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/afp.html Alternative Futures Project] , list of publications, retrieved Dec 2007.] From 1977 to 1980 he was the moderator of a computer conference on general systems theory supported by the National Science Foundation. Between 1982 and 1988 he arranged scientific meetings involving American and Soviet scientists in the area of cybernetics and general systems theory. [ Umpleby, Stuart. "American and Soviet Discussions of the Foundations of Cybernetics and General Systems Theory." "Cybernetics and Systems", Vol. 18, 1987, pp. 177-193. ]

From 1975 to present he has been a professor in the Department of Management at The George Washington University, where he teaches courses ranging from cybernetics, systems theory, and system dynamics to the philosophy of science, cross-cultural management, and organizational behavior. From 1994 to 1997 he was the faculty facilitator of a Quality and Innovation Initiative in the GW School of Business. [ Umpleby, Stuart. [http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/recent_papers/2001_creating_sustaining_improvement_effort_university.htm “Creating and Sustaining a Quality Improvement Effort in a University,”] In Russell J. Meyer and David Keplinger (eds.), "Perspectives in Higher Education Reform", Volume 11, Alliance of Universities for Democracy, Texas Review Press, 2002, pp. 31-36. ] He is a past president of the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC). In 2007 Stuart Umpleby was awarded The Wiener Gold Medal of the American Society for Cybernetics for outstanding lifelong contributions to both cybernetics and the ASC. [ [http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/organization/awards/Umpleby.pdf The Wiener Gold Medal 2007] , American Society for Cybernetics, retrieved Oct 2007.]

Work

Umpleby has made important contributions in the areas of cybernetics and systems theory, the philosophy of science, and management methods. Other interests have been demography, the year 2000 computer crisis, academic globalization, and the transitions in the post-communist countries.

Cybernetics

In the early 1970s Umpleby studied cybernetics with Heinz von Foerster and Ross Ashby in the Biological Computer Laboratory at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. He organized the first Gordon Research Conference on cybernetics in 1984. He worked to develop and promote second order cybernetics or biological cybernetics. He also helped to create social cybernetics. [Umpleby, Stuart. [http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/Conceptual_Systems.txt "Cybernetics of Conceptual Systems."] "Cybernetics and Systems", 28/8: 635-652, 1997.] He provided an example of the amplification of management capability. [ Umpleby, Stuart. [http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/recent_papers/st_regulating.htm "Strategies for Regulating the Global Economy."] "Futures", December 1989, pp. 585-592. ] And he clarified the nature of information in descriptions of the physical relationships among matter, energy, and information. [ Umpleby, Stuart. [http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/recent_papers/2004_physical_relationships_among_matter_energy_information_umpleby.htm “Physical Relationships Among Matter, Energy and Information.”] "Systems Research and Behavioral Science", Vol. 24, No. 3, 2007, pp. 369-372.]

Philosophy of Science

Following his work on biological cybernetics and social cybernetics Umpleby suggested a way of unifying the philosophies of realism, constructivism, and pragmatism by combining world, description, and observer. [ Umpleby, Stuart. [http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/recent_papers/2007_ASC_Unifying_Epistemologies.pdf “Unifying Epistemologies by Combining World, Description, and Observer,”] Accepted for publication in "Constructivist Foundations", Fall 2007.] Building on the work of E.A. Singer, Jr., C. West Churchman, and Russell L. Ackoff, Umpleby has suggested that, since managers are part of the system they seek to influence, methods rather than theories might be the most effective way to structure knowledge of management. [ Umpleby, Stuart. [http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/recent_papers/2002_knowledge_of_management_organized_as_theories_or_as_methods.htm “Should Knowledge of Management be Organized as Theories or as Methods?”] "Janus Head", Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature, Continental Philosophy, Phenomenological Psychology, and the Arts, 5/1, Spring 2002, pp. 181-195.]

Management Methods

Umpleby recently has worked to further develop the Quality Improvement Priority Matrix, a method for determining priorities for improvement and for monitoring perceived improvement. [ Umpleby, Stuart. [http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/qipm.htm Quality Improvement Priority Matrix] list of publications, retrieved Oct 2007.]

Demography

In 1960 Heinz von Foerster published an article in "Science" showing that if demographic trends of the past two millennia continue, world population would go to infinity in approximately 2026. Although contested in the 1960s, the equation proved remarkably accurate, indeed even conservative, until the early 1990s. [ [http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/world_population/index.html Articles on World Population] , list of publications, retrieved Dec 2007. ] Discussions of the doomsday equation revealed that demographers and natural scientists have fundamentally different ways of dealing with estimates and that these differences are not generally known by the public, science journalists, or other scientists. [ Umpleby, Stuart. [http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/world_population/1990_Umpleby_Scientific%20Revolution_in_Demography.pdf "The Scientific Revolution in Demography."] "Population and Environment", Spring 1990, pp. 159-174. ]

Year 2000 Computer Problem

From 1997 to 2000 Umpleby worked on the Year 2000 Computer Problem, viewing it as an opportunity to test social science theories using a before and after research design. [ Umpleby, Stuart. [http://www.gwu.edu/~y2k/keypeople/umpleby/y2kpapers.html The Year 2000 Computer Problem] , list of publications, retrieved Dec 2007. ]

Academic Globalization

Between 1977 and 1980 he was the moderator of a computer conference on general systems theory supported by the National Science Foundation. This project was one of nine "experimental trials of electronic information exchange for small research communities." About sixty scientists in the United States, Canada, and Europe interacted for a period of two and a half years using the Electronic Information Exchange System (EIES) located at New Jersey Institute of Technology. [ Umpleby, Stuart. "Computer Conference on General Systems Theory: One Year's Experience." In Madeline M. Henderson and Marcia J. MacNaughton (eds.). "Electronic Communication: Technology and Impacts". Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1979, pp. 55-63.] Continuing the work with computer-based communications media, Umpleby has experimented with applications of the internet. Currently he is developing the idea of academic globalization, since it is now possible for academics to collaborate via the internet with colleagues in foreign countries for purposes of education, research or community service. [ Umpleby, Stuart. [http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/academic/index.html Academic Globalization] , list of publications, retrieved Dec 2007. ]

Transitions in Post-Communist Countries

With the collapse of communism in 1989 many social scientists both in Russia and the West said that, although Karl Marx had described the transition from capitalism to socialism to communism, there were no theories to guide the transition from communism to capitalism. Umpleby refuted this claim by organizing meetings in 1990 in both Washington, DC, and Vienna, Austria, to discuss the theories of economic, political, and social development that could guide the transformation of socialist societies. [ Umpleby, Stuart. [http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/recent_papers/1990_preliminary_inventory_of_theories_available_to_reform_socialist_societies.htm "A Preliminary Inventory of Theories Available to Guide the Reform of Socialist Societies."] In Stuart Umpleby and Robert Trappl (eds.). "Cybernetics and Systems", Vol. 22, No. 4, 1991, pp. 389-410. ]

Since 1994 the Research Program in Social and Organizational Learning at The George Washington University, which Umpleby heads, has hosted over 150 visiting scholars supported by the U.S. Department of State. Most of these scholars have come from the former Soviet Union and Southeast Europe. While on campus the scholars work with professors in their fields. They also learn process improvement and group facilitation methods, so they can be more effective in introducing changes when they return home. In this way Umpleby has experimented with ways to encourage the use of participatory methods in other countries. [ Umpleby, Stuart. [http://www.gwu.edu/~rpsol, Research Program in Social and Organizational Learning] , George Washington University, retrieved Dec 2007.] He has found that the Participatory Strategic Planning methods developed by the Institute of Cultural Affairs not only improve the effectiveness of organizations but also lead to more humane management practices and build mutual trust among the participants. [ Umpleby, Stuart. [http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/ptp.html Technology of Participation] , list of publications, retrieved Oct 2007.]

See also

* Conceptual system
* Cyberneticist
* Glossary of systems theory
* Management cybernetics
* Mental Health Research Institute (Michigan)
* New Cybernetics
* Russell L. Ackoff
* Principia Cybernetica
* The Institute of Cultural Affairs International

Publications

Stuart Umpleby has written and edited several articles, several special issues of the journal "Cybernetics and Systems", papers and a books:
* 1991. Stuart Umpleby and Vadim Sadovsky (eds.). "A Science of Goal Formulation", Taylor & Francis, 255 pages.

;Articles and papers, a selection:
* 1983. "A Group Process Approach to Organizational Change." in Horst Wedde (ed.), "Adequate Modeling of Systems", Springer-Verlag, pp. 116-128.
* 1986. "Methods for Making Social Organizations Adaptive." in Robert Trappl (ed.) "Power, Autonomy, Utopia: New Approaches toward Complex Systems", Plenum Publishing, pp. 133-138.
* 1987. [ftp://ftp.vub.ac.be/pub/projects/Principia_Cybernetica/Nodes/Cybernetics_glossary.txt "ASC Glossary on Cybernetics and Systems Theory"] . By Stuart Umpleby (ed.) from the American Society for Cybernetics.
* 1990. [ftp://ftp.vub.ac.be/pub/projects/Principia_Cybernetica/Papers_Umpleby/Science-Cybernetics.txt "The Science of Cybernetics and the Cybernetics of Science"] . In: "Cybernetics and Systems". Vol 21/1: 109-121.
* 1997. [http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/Conceptual_Systems.txt "Cybernetics of Conceptual Systems"] . In: "Cybernetics and Systems" Vol 28/8: 635-652.
* 1999. [http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/recent_papers/1998_origins_purposes_several_traditions_systems_theory_cybernetic_1.htm "The Origins and Purposes of Several Traditions in Systems Theory and Cybernetics"] . With Eric B. Dent (1999). In: "Cybernetics and Systems": An International Journal, 30:79-103, 1999.

References

External links

* [http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/ Homepage] Stuart A. Umpleby at George Washington University
* [http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/vitae0.html VITAE] Stuart A. Umpleby 2005.