Systems, Experts, and Computers: The Systems Approach in Management and Engineering, World War II and After (Dibner Institute Studies in the History of Science and Technology)

This groundbreaking book charts the origins and spread of the systems movement. After World War II, a systems approach to solving complex problems and managing complex systems came into vogue among engineers, scientists, and managers, fostered in part by the diffusion of digital computing power. Enthusiasm for the approach peaked during the Johnson administration, when it was applied to everything from military command and control systems to poverty in American cities. Although its failure in the social sphere, coupled with increasing skepticism about the role of technology and "experts" in American society, led to a retrenchment, systems methods are still part of modern managerial practice. This groundbreaking book charts the origins and spread of the systems movement. It describes the major players including RAND, MITRE, Ramo-Wooldrige (later TRW), and the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis—and examines applications in a wide variety of military, government, civil, and engineering settings. The book is international in scope, describing the spread of systems thinking in France and Sweden. The story it tells helps to explain engineering thought and managerial practice during the last sixty years. After World War II, a systems approach to solving complex problems and managing complex systems came into vogue among engineers, scientists, and managers, fostered in part by the diffusion of digital computing power. Enthusiasm for the approach peaked during the Johnson administration, when it was applied to everything from military command and control systems to poverty in American cities. Although its failure in the social sphere, coupled with increasing skepticism about the role of technology and "experts" in American society, led to a retrenchment, systems methods are still part of modern managerial practice.This groundbreaking book charts the origins and spread of the systems movement. It describes the major players -- including RAND, MITRE, Ramo-Wooldrige (later TRW), and the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis -- and examines applications in a wide variety of military, government, civil, and engineering settings. The book is international in scope, describing the spread of systems thinking in France and Sweden. The story it tells helps to explain engineering thought and managerial practice during the last sixty years. Contents 6 Introduction 8 1 Automation's Finest Hour 34 2 The Adoption of Operations Research in the United States during World War II 64 3 From Concurrency to Phased Planning 100 4 System Reshapes the Corporation 120 5 Planning a Technological Nation 140 6 A Worm in the Bud? 168 7 Engineers or Managers? 198 8 The World in a Machine 228 9 The Medium Is the Message, or How Context Matters 262 10 Out of the Blue Yonder 318 11 The Limits of Technology Transfer 366 12 From Operations Research to Futures Studies 392 13 The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, the TAP Project, and the RAINS Model 420 14 RAND, IIASA, and the Conduct of Systems 440 15 How a Genetic Code Became an Information System 470 Index 504 Notes on Contributors 500 Examining, as this volume does, "the spread of the systems approach," suggests that some coherent approach to systems emerged within engineering before it diffused into other disciplines such as social policy and urban planning.