Human nature, humanistic social systems, and design

Abstract

Social systems are forces that influence the quality‐of‐life within human communities, and are especially relevant for advancing or constraining a people's economic, spiritual, social‐cultural, and political development. As the world moves toward reinventing and redesigning social systems to cope with increasing complexity and challenges of the approaching twenty‐first century, ‘user designers’ need to re‐examine more closely how systems affect/effect stakeholders. This discussion links humanistic and systemic views by exploring the notion that particular system types can be incompatible with certain qualities of human nature. Four general qualities of human nature (developmental, socio‐teleological, value‐seeking, and creative/innovative) are selected and discussed in the context of the design and operation of rigidly controlled, deterministic, purposive, heuristic goal formulating, and purposeful intermediate systems types. Design Inquiry and key concepts for social system design are introduced and discussed in context to social systemic organizations designing for quality‐of‐life. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A behavioural system of strategy‐as‐practice for grant acquisition in nonprofits: An investigation through the sensemaking theory and systems theory

“…The study found that strategy‐making in nonprofits is a social system with a significant humanistic orientation as it requires sensemaking. As noticed by LaPointe (1998), this study also found humans as human beings than human objects. This study corroborates the findings of LaPointe (1998) because there were dynamic ideational reciprocity among people in the NGO, open communications, goal pursuing intentions and existence for a purpose observed in the strategy‐making for grant acquisition among nonprofits.…”

“…As noticed by LaPointe (1998), this study also found humans as human beings than human objects. This study corroborates the findings of LaPointe (1998) because there were dynamic ideational reciprocity among people in the NGO, open communications, goal pursuing intentions and existence for a purpose observed in the strategy‐making for grant acquisition among nonprofits. The study also corroborates the findings of Pettini and Mazzocco (2021), as there was a complex relationship between the sensemaking system of strategy‐making and their social‐organizational environment and competitive environment.…”

A systems approach to examine microentrepreneurship development through Stimulus-Organism-Behavior-Consequence (SOBC) theory

“…Human communications also have been viewed from the systems thinking perspective, considering communication has systems and sub-systems following systems principles (Kittelman et al ., 2018). In addition, the psychological attributes for micro-entrepreneurship in SHGs and the influence of intermediation falls in the schemes of social systems (LaPointe, 1998). The SOBC theory analyses the series of human factors (motives, intention, and behavior) and the influence of the external environment (intermediation), which leads to a phenomenon (micro-entrepreneurship) that fits well in this investigation.…”