This paper reports a case of the successful application of sociologic theories in the area of Distributed Artificial Intelligence. We argue in favour of a rather deep conceptual transfer of sociologic models: it is shown how analytical theories from the school of structural functionalism, aimed at explaining observed phenomena in human societies, can be put “upside down”, so as to come up with ...

Purpose – This paper aims to contribute to an emerging debate centred on the ways in which knowledge management (KM) might be effectively researched and, in turn, how KM practice might be improved. Design/methodology/approach – Burrell and Morgan’s (1979) paradigms are used to set the scene and to highlight the changing focus in three closely related areas – research per se, the KM movement and...

This paper develops a critical systems approach to organizational policy formulation and in so doing, contributes to the literature on critical systems thinking (CST). For, whilst there is, in the literature on systems theory and practice, much written on the subject of strategy in organizations, there is very little on organizational policy and nothing from within the critical systems paradigm...

Purpose – This paper aims to contribute to an emerging debate centred on the ways in which knowledge management (KM) might be effectively researched and, in turn, how KM practice might be improved. Design/methodology/approach – Burrell and Morgan’s (1979) paradigms are used to set the scene and to highlight the changing focus in three closely related areas – research per se, the KM movement and...

as funct/onal/sm. It is my contention that his argument is seriously mistaken and rests on a misunderstanding of the functionalist position. While my primary aim is to defend functionalism from Thagard’s attack, in the process I hope to provide some much needed clarification of matters both philosophical and computational. Since I intend to untangle issues that are often troublesome in cognitiv...