7/24/2019 En Memoria de Bertalanffy Gray 1972

1/3

IN MEMORI M

LUDWIG VON BERTALANFFY

1901..1972)

On June 12, 1972 the life of Ludwig von Bertalanffy, the father of

general systems theory, came to an end, to the great sorrow of his family,

his friends, and his worldwide iegion of coileagues and students. To them

he was the great originator and innovator of the 20th century whose works

have produced a revolution in our view of the worid, its inhabitants, and

its happenings. It is a systems view of the world that he spoke for, in which

the leading elements for the biological and behavioral sciences were pri-

mary and spontaneous activity and human concern, in contrast to the

mechanistic and more rigid concepts of eariier times.

An increasing number of areas of inteiiectuai endeavor are turning

to von Bertalanffy's ideas for what John A. Beckett refers to as an

intel-

lectually respectable underlying theory [1] . Among these are the fields

of organization and management theory, i have been asked, as one of von

Bertalanffy's dear friends and proteges, to write a short paper on what I

consider to be the leading elements for these particular fields.

On June 16th a memorial service was held for von Bertalanffy in the

small town of Wiiiiamsville, New York. It was lovely and gracious and would

have greatiy pleased him because there was good talk and the electric

excitement that characterized personal meetings with him. Fortunately, he

transmitted these qualities in his writing so that, in a sense, to read him

was to know him. An evening with Ludwig was a marvelous and wonderful

experience of suddenly seeing new worlds of knowledge open upnew and

optimistic ways of viewing this tired old worid of ours that we had somehow

missedthat inspired both the scientist and humanist residing within

each of us to move ahead in promising new directions.

In the words spoken at the service by Anatol Rapoport, his old friend

and intellectual compatriot, Ludwig von Bertalanffy supplied the new intel-

lectual capital for scientific thought that Alfred North Whitehead had years

before warned the Western worid it needed if it were to avoid sterility, and

provided the bridgework that promises to link the systems thinkinq of the

7/24/2019 En Memoria de Bertalanffy Gray 1972

2/3

Academy of Management Journal December

theory is to be in a precarious position, but I have decided to be guided

by my long friendship and to select as I think he might have, were he still

with us. He would, I believe, select three issues to bring to your attention.

First, he would tell you that you must develop a field of theoretical

management, much in the way that he fathered the field of theoretical

biology. He would tell you that life is more than a collection of descriptions

and taxonomies, and that if management theory Is to be a living science it

must develop its theoretical base.

I hope he would agree with my second choice, which is to consider

his beloved fliessg leichgew icht as the core concept for developing

management theory. Von Bertalanffy's beautiful notion of flowing or stream-

ing equilibrium is at the heart of his notions of open system and dynamic

interaction and deals with the fact that all living things are not rigidly

structured, but are formed by their patterns of flow. In the analogy of the

candle flame or the Heraclitean river, it is always changing and yet the same.

A true theory of management science must be composed of streams of

ideas, concepts, and observations that maintain their form only as long as

the streaming flow continues. They must not degenerate into permanently

fixed structures, for then they would only be a house without inhabitants.

The third point of concern that von Bertalanffy would urge on you is

to consider always that the laws of organization are not limited to those

observable in the lower strata of hierarchical structures. The search for

such higher level organizational laws is the great new frontier of our times.

A new world is aborning, known as The World System, and should be

the subject of central concern to management and organizational theorists.

It is clearly described by Laszio in his recent book.

The Systems View of

the World

[3 ]. Another source book for the ideas of von Bertalanffy and

their worldwide impact will soon be available. It is

Unity Th rough Diversity

to be published this

fall,

of which I and my colleague, Nicholas D. Rizzo,

have the honor to be editors [2]

WILLIAM GRAY, M.D.

R F R N S

1 . John A. Beckett , Personal Communication (1972).

2.

W il l iam Gray and N icholas D. Rizzo, eds., Unity Through Diversity (New Yo rk: Gordon

and Breach, in press).

7/24/2019 En Memoria de Bertalanffy Gray 1972

3/3